Friday, February 25, 2011

Below Zero

In Minnesota when it stops snowing and the skies clear you know that is is going to get cold.  Last night it was –6 below and than as the morning progressed it got colder instead of warmer at 8 AM it was –10F or –23C.

Once it gets below zero the number is not so important except to the locals..everyone wants to have the coldest temperature in the area.  I don’t know where they buy their thermometers at or where they get their glasses from..but it is not the same place I get mine.

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Back in 1957 and 1958 when I was in first and second grade, I  walked to the end of the driveway to catch the school bus.  My Dad would walk with me in the winter.  He would carry what I have always called an Indian Blanket, a warm colorful blanket. I think that some mornings he carried me through the deep snow drifts so that I wouldn’t get all snowy and wet before school.  While we were waiting for the bus, he would wrap me inside the blanket and hold me close to shield me from the wind that came off the prairie.  Dad also shoveled that entire driveway by hand. The driveway was over 600 feet long ( Far Guy measured it on Google Earth.)

I recall some of the dirt roads in our area being just like tunnels when you drove through them in a car, you could only see forwards or backwards. They were one lane tunnels too..if you met another car someone was going to have to back up.

Along the road to Osage the snow drifts would be almost as high as the telephone poles..it was rumored that some of the kids would run up there along the drifts.  I remember scratching the frost off of the window in the bus with my fingernails, or just making fingerprints all in a circle to melt the frost or getting really close and breathing on the glass to unthaw it enough to see out..just to see how high the snow banks were.  I always wore my snow boots to school and I might have been wearing a dress but I still had my snow pants on underneath:) 

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18 comments:

lisa said...

My mom tells us stories of having to wear dresses is the worst weather ever! Brrr sure sounds colder than I would like. We are getting a snow storm right now. Yuck! I love your picture it was pretty neat of the snow.

Muffy's Marks said...

You've jogged my memory. On a windy winter day as you have described, back when I was in high-school, I was riding the bus home, I think it might have even been early dismissal. I was sitting minding my own busness, the guys in front of me were watching the wind blow over the high banks. Just at the right moment they opened their window, and bingo I was covered in a snow drift. Boys!!!

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

I had to walk to a place where the bus could turn around. I crossed a little creek that the bus would not cross. It was often a very cold wait. We were required to wear dresses back in the day but I always had on long pants under that I took off when I got to school.

I always so enjoy your stories girl.

God bless and enjoy this day!!! :o)

DJan said...

Such a great story! I can see how much your dad loved you and worried about your safety. Not to mention the intense cold and snow! Stay warm and safe in your cozy home today, Connie!

Anonymous said...

I can just imagine you as a kid in a warm blanket!

Your weather sounds very much like ours this week. Freezing and arctic!

Rae said...

I enjoyed reading that. You are a gifted story teller. I can just picture those high and deep drifts along the roadways and the frost on the windows. How hard it must of been for your dad to do all that shoveling - in such cold temps too. That is a really long distance to shovel and to think he probably had to do it many times during the winter.

Linda said...

I remember having to wear a dress to school...with snow pants.....I hated the fashion statement but I had to wear them anyway. It's the same thing here.......who is the coldest. It was 30* below F. this morning, I just wish it was 30* ABOVE for a change.

Karen said...

We never had it as cold as you get, but I too remember that if we wore pants to school, we had to take them off when we got there. We are complaining about the cold here too right now, but it's nothing like yours.

Dogert said...

I remember those days. Fun. :)

Rita said...

Thanks for the memories...*she sings* ;)

LindaG said...

Try and stay warm! :)

Lanny said...

My Mom, a North Dakota girl during the depression, told of her older brother driving the team to the school with all the siblings wrapped up in the wagon. She said the only thing he had to go on was the telephone poles and they looked like picket fence posts.

You'd think grownin' up like, those responsiblilities for siblings and horses, that would make a person a mature and capable adult.

Anonymous said...

Far Side,
I have been enjoying reading your blog for quite some time at least a year or more. I don't even know how I stumbled upon it. I really enjoy your stories. Your life up there is so much different than mine here in Nashville TN. I'm complaining because it was cold her today (50 degrees). I really should count my blessings.

Keep writing and I will keep reading!

Pam in Nashville (pam.neeley@comcast.net

Lynda said...

I remember the dresses and snowpants, too. We went outside for recess most days in the winter wearing those lovely clothes, too. I lived in mid-upstate NY at that time and winter snows and accumulations still seemed more than what some are now.

troutbirder said...

This is the Minnesota the snow bunnies like to scare the natives in Florida with.... and then I told them it was all true. :)

Country Gal said...

I went to a public school, thank goodness cause as a kid I hated dreses I was a tom boy back in the day on the farm and still are to a degree lol
Yes I grew up in the same way walking a long way to cathch the bus in the cold beep snow, no way could I do that now ! great post, Have a good weekend .

L. D. said...

Even though it was so darn cold they were always a fascination and one had to go out create a snow cave.

gayle said...

Enjoyed reading your story! Our weather is beautiful here today!