THE SNOW

Every now and then something happens or an occurrence takes place that is so impressive we tend to date other events from this particular point in time. In ’39 we had a snowstorm that beat anything I had ever seen and for several years people referred to that particular storm as The Snow!

It started to snow about four or five o’clock in the morning. It wasn’t too cold, maybe twenty-five degrees and the wind was real calm. By daylight we knew that old school bus could not make it through this mess. It snowed all day long and was still snowing when we went to bed that night. The next morning you couldn’t see a fence anywhere and it was still snowing!

It slacked off about ten o’clock when my Father, my brother Tob and I grabbed some shovels off the back porch and started digging our way to the woodshed and barn. We had finished cutting a path to the woodshed and we were about half way to the barn when it warmed up a bit and started to rain. We measured the snow and it was sixty-four inches deep. We got to the barn just before dark. By the time we had finished milking the cows and feeding the livestock it was too late to try for the spring house. We simply melted snow for drinking and cooking water.

It stopped raining just after dark and then turned colder than blue whiz. The mercury had dropped down to zero by morning and stayed there for days and days. The soggy snow on top had frozen as hard as a brick outhouse to a depth of a foot or more. The only way you could dent it was with an ax or saw!

You couldn’t stand up on the slick crust. Tob fell trying to get into the cellar under our house and slid all the way to the bottom of the hill. We had to slide an ax down to him and he cut notches in the crust of the snow enabling him to climb back up the hill.

Tob and I couldn’t stand being cooped up in the house so we took some old overshoes, ripped the inside lining out and punched holes in the heels and soles. We put some big headed roofing nails through the holes and then replaced the lining. We put them over our shoes and we could go anywhere we wanted to, especially with the long poles with a nail in the end, filed down real sharp.

We had an old scoop board we had made a year or so ago. A rather simple contraption, a wide piece of curly maple wood about four feet long nailed to a block of wood at one end and another board nailed to the block on top. It tapered back down to the back where we nailed it securely. We nailed a cross bar across the front and rode on our belly. It really didn’t work to well in regular snow but it was a boy’s dream come true on this mountain of ice. The bottom was as slick as a greased pig on the fourth of July!

The first day we rode the scoop board down the short hill beside our house. We had our eyes on the apple orchard on a long high hill to the back of our house. We could start at the top and come down through the orchard on the right side and cut left near the bottom just above a big sarvest tree in the middle of a green briar patch. That way we would wind up across the frozen creek, through the pasture and right up near the house.

The next morning I was on top of that hill just after the sun came up. It was a lovely day!

I stretched out on that contraption, belly first and grabbed the cross bar. It took off like a scalded dog and seemed to have a mind of its own. I couldn’t guide it in any direction. The snow was up to the apple tree limbs and I still can’t figure out how I missed so many. The last tree was coming up and I saw this great big limb sticking out when I crashed, head on! That scoop board flew into a dozen pieces and I just kept on going, still gaining speed. I hit the green briar patch with my arms outstretched, still holding on to the cross bar. By sheer luck, I missed the sarvest tree! I wound up across the creek in the pasture all wrapped up in a web of green briar vines. Once again, my guardian angel was looking after me!

A couple of days later, my Father got word that a neighbor’s boy, Garvey, had got himself stove up in a hollow tree and they couldn’t get him out. Word was that he had tried to go up on top of the mountain beside their home to check on some cattle. Just as he got to the top he fell and came sliding off that mountain, lickedy split.

At the bottom someone had at some time sawed down an old hollow tree. It had fallen down hill, hit another tree and had kicked back and came to rest on its own stump. With the snow so deep, the hollow in that tree was like a bulls eye and Garvey hit it dead on and feet first. He had been there for the better part of three days!

My Father, my brother Tob and I gathered up the crosscut saw, an ax, some steel wedges and a sledge hammer. Sure enough, we found Garvey in the hollow tree. His Father was feeding him some mushy looking stuff and he was sucking on a piece of ice.

It took us awhile to clear away all the crusted snow over and around the butt of that hollow tree. My Father measured back about eight or nine feet and we began sawing. When we got through sawing, my Father took the steel wedges and with the sledge hammer he split that log right down the middle!

Garvey looked and smelled like he had fallen into an outhouse! We covered him with some blankets and after awhile he was able, with the help of his Father, to walk home. Our spiked overshoes had caught on real fast. I noticed Garvey’s Father had rigged himself a pair!

Just after we got Garvey out of the hollow tree, two steers cane sliding down the side of that mountain. They crashed into some big boulders at the bottom killing them both.

We went home dragging a whole side of beef!

To a lot of people The Snow was a nightmare. We were fortunate. We had plenty of wood for fuel and a cellar full of food. Our livestock were safe and warm in the barn.

We had a ball and celebrated with beefsteaks!

The raging winter storms may bring
A yearning for the warmth of spring.
Or to see a violet
Take a bow
And realize that we, somehow
Will arise again, out there to see
A replay in eternity!