The Weather Outside is Frightful!

We've had our fill of snow, thank you very much.

Since I do not have to go out in it I can sit in the comfort of my own home and observe the wind, the drifting and those icicles!

Living on the Great Plains of Nebraska, we are no strangers to winter weather but this winter has been harsh. Even school children are more than ready to go back to the school day routine. No doubt their caretakers will be glad when that happens, too!

The charm of snow days has worn thin.

At the risk of sounding like an old lady, I am reminiscent of a memorable winter storm in the 1940's. There was no snow removal equipment then like we have today and cattle were at serious risk in the central and western part of Nebraska. Hay had to be airlifted because cattle had no access to feed. Farmers could not get to their cattle because of the drifting and blowing snow. Power outages were common and power was reinstated very slowly then.

That blizzard made for some of the happiest family memories of my life, though.

We lived in a basement apartment in the tiny little town of Elwood. My folks drove a 1938 Chevy and it was so cold that the poor little car would not start. So my dad walked the few blocks to town to open his shop. It soon became apparent that the weather would cause everything to shut down, so Dad put on all his winter gear again and prepared to walk home. He had to walk about three blocks to the railroad track, cross it and walk a couple more to get home. He only needed to go in a straight line.

With the blizzard-driven snow, he lost his bearings. The maintainer came along and, thankfully, the driver saw him. If that machine had not come along when it did, I shudder to think of the consequences.

Mom and I were worried about him being gone so long. When that rig drove up and Dad hopped out, we were tremendously relieved.

The power went out in our neighborhood, so we pulled out the kerosene lanterns from our camping gear and lit those. Our landlords lived upstairs. They had propane for cooking; we had oil for heat in the basement. We opened our door to the upstairs and we all huddled in the upstairs kitchen.

For TWO WEEKS without electricity, we cooked, baked and ate; we played games. There was Monopoly and Canasta; we told stories, read to one another and made jokes. There was snow ice cream to be stirred up and eaten. You could do that safely back then.

We could not see the out of doors from our apartment windows for all the deep snow, but we could look out of the upstairs kitchen to see the drifts mounting all over the yard.

There was a young pear tree near the house. When we could make it outside again we could see that tree was buried under a gigantic drift. The snow froze on the top, leaving a thick crust. I could actually walk up that drift with my sled and slide all the way down the snowy "hill" to the bottom!

That blizzard snow did not melt until the spring of 1949! Back in those days, we children walked to school and we had a wonderful time maneuvering the piles of snow the maintainer had left in its path! Our yard was full of snow angels and snowmen and a fort!

In those days, you could pull a sled by a rope tied to the bumper of a car.

HORRORS! YOU WOULD NEVER CONSIDER SUCH A THING NOWADAYS!

Mom and Dad would take the Chevy out on the icy country roads of Gosper County and tie the sled to the bumper. Away we'd go! I remember screaming with delight as we zoomed along!

This winter found us snowed in and hunkered down for Christmas. We had power, though. And while the drifts closed the rock roads in Johnson County and the surrounding area, this storm was not as "romantic" as the one of 1948.

The pictures that time gave me to remember in my head are magnificent. I felt safe and loved and cared for. Even with the sled tied to a car bumper!

If the pictures in YOUR head are not delightful, you would be wise to look into using The Healing Codes. You just need different pictures and The Codes can help you with that.

Connie Baum
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. If those links are clicked and a sale results, your humble blogger would be compensated. Whenever you conduct business, online or offline, be sure you trust the vendor implicitly. Do your due diligence.