BLIZZARD OF 77
We have been dodging the bullet where weather is concerned. Not only did we miss the storms this summer, but we have, so far, missed the ice storms this winter. While looking through some old Corner columns I came across a write-up on the blizzard of 197.
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It sure doesn’t pay to fool Mother Nature! All I did was say a few words about spring and POW, right in the kisser! Would you believe I haven’t even gotten my paper with the spring column in it? Living on the County Farm road, we usually have our road plowed out in record time, so it was a strange feeling to know there was no traffic moving by our house on Friday. Melanie wound up staying the night at the County Home to help out Rita who had been there since the night before. The rest of us kept feeding the fire place, keeping a roaring fire going night and day. As long as we kept the fire going, the furnaces worked a lot less. And, with the thermostats turned down it was nice to have one spot where the heat could be felt.
Once again we have been shown how dependent we are upon one another. Neighbors kept an eye on each other to see if fuel was holding out and all had enough food and medicine. Phones rang from home to home checking on senior citizens – who usually ended up better prepared than their younger neighbors! – and following the progress of men on their way home from work. Last week was no time to be estranged from people! Once again we realize we are not lonely little islands floating through life. If we were not each one known and wondered about by folks around us, all we had to do was lift a phone and make known our needs and the community put us on its list of people to think about.
Those of you who have CBs or scanners know more about the tremendous efforts of road crews and emergency staff than I do but stories keep drifting in as I talk to this or that neighbor. I heard John and Jim Max talking the other day on the phone about how all those who had blades or bulldozers would have plenty of work to do, and I knew the fun would begin as soon as they got organized. These guys don’t need snowmobiles or skies to have fun. Just give them a tractor with a snow blade or a bulldozer and they will be out from sunup to sundown “helping out”. It not only gets the roads cleared quicker, but it also provides the opportunity for some winter fun. Of course, someone may take offense at that remark and tell me he is just doing it because it needs to be done, but I’ll bet he wouldn’t let another guy take over his tractor and let him rest! We gals learned a long time ago just how long our husbands can stay homebound without going stir crazy. During the bitter cold it was all the men could do to keep the chores done night and morning and keep the motors running, but as soon as the temperature moderates you’ll see the chores done in record time and the men out on the prairie “opening it up”. So, if you see them going by the house and they’re moving slow enough, invite them in for a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup. You’ll be rewarded with some tall tales of enormous drifts that almost buried the tractor and only they could get through, and if there are more than one or two guys in the kitchen you’ll get some real tall tales. Like they say, “the first guy to tell a story ain’t got a chance!”
Daughter Melyssa has already informed me that she is going to blow this climate when she goes to college – she suggested I enroll her in Miami State – but I shiver a little, check the firewood on the back porch and decide winter in Florida would probably be terribly boring. Just think, you’d be sitting down there sweating and hearing about all the excitement back home and all the tales of daring. Give me Indiana with its infinite variety. I’ll enjoy the heat next July.
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Let us fervently hope this is as close as we get to a blizzard in 2009!
