Tornado of '36: A Homecoming - The History Forum for April

Maybe it is because this is tornado season, or more likely it is because there is simply a good bit of discussion going the rounds among those who survived the Tornado of 1936, but whatever ... I've been getting a good number of questions about what is going on that has to do with history and tornadoes. So, here's the picture:

The new Northeast Georgia History Center - that's the new building you can see going up on the Brenau Campus just across Academy Street from the Gainesville Post Office - is holding a series of monthly events they call History Forums. For instance, the February Forum featured Bill Coates talking about the history of churches in Northeast Georgia, and in March Dr. Tom Lumsden talked about the history of the Unicoi Turnpike.

Now, the History Forum for April will feature the Tornado of '36. They are calling the program "The Tornado of '36: A Homecoming." Everybody is invited to this meeting, of course, but the history group would especially like to have all people who were in Gainesville during or right after that devastating storm. A program is being put together by Bill Miller and about a dozen others who were in Gainesville during the time of the Tornado of '36. I'm not sure what all will be included on that program, but I do know they have the film that was shot by insurance companies. And I know they are already collecting information from many of the survivors, and hope to get personal information from as many survivors as possible.

This April History Forum, sponsored by the Northeast Georgia History Center at Brenau University, will be held at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month, that's
Tuesday, April 8, at the First Baptist Church chapel. There is no charge and everybody is invited ... and if you hear something about a Tornado meeting, that is what is going on.

This is Gordon Sawyer from a window on historic Green Street.