mapnut, I don’t remember seeing any stories about the June 9, 1953 Worcester tornado hitting any ski areas, but there weren’t any in those days abound here.It started in Petersham, and blew itself out near Westborough, but some of the lighter debris would up in Boston Harbor and Cape Cod.Its path could have carried it near Pine Ridge, but I don’t know whether there was a ski area there or not. People did ski at Ward Hill in those days (I believe it had a rope tow then) but I don’t know whether it touched Ward Hill or not. Its path through Shrewsbury center into Northborough and Westborough could have taken it near or even over Ward Hill. Jeremy may be able to find that out.That tornado was one of the worst in the country. There were 94 deaths and about 1,200 injuries and widespread damage in the north side of Worcester. I’m told by people who lived through it that people in the rest of the city didn’t know what had happened at first. They saw dark clouds and lightning, but some places didn’t get much wind or rain.(That was before my time in Worcester. I was in the Army in Europe then and read about it in Stars and Stripes.I got here a little more than a year later and heard tornado stories for many years thereafter. One I read somewhere was that a farmer in Westborough had just sold some milk, wholesale, I guess, and put the check for it on a refrigerator in the barn. He said that the tornado hit and he never saw that check again. He said he never saw the refrigerator again, either. )
