A Tornado Wreaks Havoc, Revealing Our Town’s Foundation

A tragedy shows us what has changed — and what has not — about the community that raised us

Rescue workers free Bill and Shirley Wallace from their Barrett Drive home that collapsed on them, trapping them under rubble. Shirley was taken for medical attention after a tornado ripped through neighborhoods in Mt. Juliet, Tenn. Photo by Larry McCormack, The Tennessean/USA Today

Mt. Juliet, Tenn. — In 1983, my family moved from Stow, Ohio to the Clearview neighborhood in Mt. Juliet, Tenn. After several years of positions involving lots of travel and frequent moves, Dad had found a nice…