The Winter of Our Discontent

February 04, 2011   Editor: Dave Uphoff

This area is reported to have received 12 inches of snow in this past week's blizzard. I don't know how they can measure the snow since it was flying sideways at 40 mph and piling up into huge snow drifts.

We have to thank the city employees for the long hours spent cleaning the streets and downtown sidewalks. It has been a rough winter for them. With this much snow, you can't just push it along the side of the road like in the country. The snow has to be physically removed from the downtown streets so people can park and use the sidewalks. That is why you see big mounds of snow on West Fifth Street. It is just a holding area until they can haul the snow away.

This winter still does not compare to the winter of 1978-79. Back then I was stranded for two days in my house in the country before the roads could be cleared for travel after a big blizzard.

It was very difficult years ago to get around after a big snowfall. People just sat tight as there were no big snowplows in those days to remove the snow as quickly as we do today. Country kids had to get to high school in town on their own. There were no school buses. In the early 1920's, my father would ride his horse 3 miles from his country home to Kerrick's stable near Walnut and Sixth street, leave his horse there and walk to the high school. A horse could go places a car couldn't. My mother lived 5 miles from Minonk. During the winter she would stay in town with her aunt so she could attend high school. It was too difficult to battle the winter weather.

One thing unusual about this last blizzard was the lightning and thunder. There were thunder claps and bright flashes of lightning as powerful as any summer thunderstorm. The lightning reminded me of the little tricks we use to play on each other years ago during the winter. To combat cabin fever my brother and I would take our shoes off and scuff our socks on the rug to generate static electricity. Then we would sneak up and touch someone's ear from behind and give them a shock. We even would stick our finger on the oil burner in the living room to see how big a spark we could generate. It was a good thing there were no gas vapors floating around or I wouldn't be here today.

While we have had an unusually long and snowy winter, at least we have more things to occupy our time while we remain cooped up in our homes compared to years ago. Anyone over the age of 65 can remember how long winters years ago could be.

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