Snow. It is late January and we haven’t had much snow in
Upstate New York yet. A very unusual year and it is making me nervous. The
warmer temperatures have been great; even if it means certain harmful elements
for the garden have been able to live longer and we have less precipitation
meaning that next year’s garden might not do very well. However, as the old
saying goes, “I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.” I’m sure we’re going to
get snow and when it comes, we’re going to pay for all this good weather we’ve
been having.
Comparisons have been made to the winter of 1965-66 when the
weather had a similar pattern throughout the late fall and early winter. We’re
coming up soon on the anniversary of what has been known locally (and
throughout most of the northeast) for the last 50 years as “The Blizzard of
66.” For three days from January 29- 31 snow fell and fell and continued to
fall. Although the storm tapered off, some more snow fell the following day
adding to the totals. The record for this storm was recorded in Oswego, New
York, about an hour north of here at 102 inches—that’s 8 ½ feet of snow! It
started out as a nor’easter along the Atlantic coast and then was joined by
lake effect snow off of Lake Ontario.[1]
What do I actually remember about this storm? Nothing
really. I was just a baby, but I’ve heard many a story about that particular
storm. Which brings me to something that I’ve neglected to do enough of in my
genealogy, but everybody should do as they are able to. Record the family
stories. Get them recorded digitally, on paper, however you can before the
previous generations are gone and the stories are forgotten.
There are a couple stories I’ve heard from this storm about
people even younger than me. Among the rural community where we lived, the most
vivid stories that were told and retold seemed to be about babies that couldn’t
wait for the storm to subside and be cleared out before they were born. I won’t
mention the family names, as they are not related to me, and I’m not sure how
much the stories had been embellished by the time I heard them, especially the
first one- so I leave it to the families to record their versions to be as
close to the truth as possible.
The first one involved a family in the rural area of the
Finger Lakes region. They lived on a fairly main road that ran north and south
along one of the lakes. During the height of the storm Mom went into labor and
the contractions were not very far apart. The road in front of their house was
effectively closed with all the snow coming down and the winds drifting across
it. A call into “Fire Control” as the central emergency dispatch was called,
yielded the fact that they couldn’t get an ambulance through the storm to the
family. The best they could do was to get one on the larger state road about 5
miles away. Soon though, lights were flashing outside the house, the amber
lights of a town plow truck. The driver told Dad that he couldn’t keep the road
open behind him for an ambulance or pick-up or anything, but if they could get
Mom up in the cab, he could get them out to the state road and the waiting
ambulance. They made it to the hospital before the baby was born, but that
child had the distinction of almost being born in the cab of a snowplow during
the peak of the storm.
Another family lived in a small city, only about three
blocks or so from the hospital. Should be no problem getting to the hospital.
However, the city streets were totally unplowed and their car wouldn’t budge
out of the driveway anyway. The drifts were too high for Mom to manage in her
condition. Dad found a quick solution. He grabbed an older sibling’s sled,
placed Mom on it and pulled her down the hill to the hospital.
What stories might your families have to tell about major
snowstorms? Perhaps your own or a sibling’s entrance into the world were as
dramatic as these tales I’ve heard. Take the time while snowed in this winter
to write them down, interview older members of the family about stories they
remember. You might not get all the details, and somebody else might remember
the events that happened differently than you do, but get them down anyway.
Each person has their own unique perspective on an event and remembers
different little details, so get a variety of the same event if possible. It
can be fun as well as preserving some memories for those that follow us!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_1966.
Not the most scholarly source, but for weather facts, I think it’s adequate.
No comments:
Post a Comment