‘Never heard a sound like that before’
Longtime Conway resident John Maggs, 76, lost a barn that had been standing since 1868 when an EF-1 tornado touched down Saturday night in the western Massachusetts town. He and his wife, Jan, ran an antiques business out of the barn, and many pieces were lost. But he told the Herald’s Chris Villani that having a beer may be the reason he and his wife escaped injury or worse — “the power of positive drinking,” as he put it.
“We had been visiting my daughter and her husband outside of Boston and got home about 7 o’clock at night. We had been sitting on their porch in the afternoon in the sunny weather, in our short sleeves, remarking at how beautiful it was for a February afternoon.
We got home and decided that, rather than go into the office (in the barn) to do some work, which we almost did, that we would go into the house and have a beer. That may have saved our lives — the power of positive drinking.
About 20 minutes past 7, we heard the noise you read about in novels about twisters. I opened the door to look out and the door almost pulled me out. I pulled the door closed and about a minute later, it was all over.
A couple of minutes later, I went outside and Jan followed me. I noticed, ‘Oh we can see the neighbors’ houses.’ We could never see the neighbors’ houses before. The barn was gone.
To see something you spent 33 years of your life restoring now worse than the way you found it, it was devastating. The barn was very important to Conway, it’s one of the oldest barns still standing, it was a landmark. The whole community loses.
We host antique shows here in the spring and the fall. We buy in Europe and people would come from far, far away and it was a big event for us. The barn was about 60 feet wide and 90 feet long and we had a showroom in there, an office, a photography studio and that sort of thing.
The items in there are probably worth $50,000 to $60,000, but it’s not the cost that matters, it’s that the items are all one-of-a-kind. Several things have been removed with serious damage, a lot of it will have to be discarded, but some of it can be restored again.
It was terrifying, I have never heard a sound like that before. It was intense and loud, so loud, in fact, that we never heard the barn come down.”
‘We heard the noise you read about in novels about twisters. I opened the door to look out and the door almost pulled me out. ... About a minute later, it was all over.’ — JOHN MAGGS, left STAFF PHOTOS BY FAITH NINIVAGGI