WINTER, MID-WEST STYLE

It is still here. Winter that is. The first two pictures are from our local paper and are titled 'snow harvest'. There are more pictures and stories to be found here. I can't imagine the working conditions. Some of the crops can be saved but those buried too deep will probably be lost.

The next two pictures are of the 'hood' one morning last week at 3:00 AM. It was 22 below zero and bitter cold. The clouds were spooky but beautiful too. We hit forty one degrees today, a 63 degree improvement. We need lots more days like this.

FEMA toured the state last week to determine the damage and whether or not we qualify for aid. I hope they came down through North and South Dakota and Norfolk. The Dakotas had 2 feet and more, Norfolk 18 inches. Really ugly up there.

Our problem is there isn't anywhere to put this amount of snow. Out in the country it is really bad. We have also been spoiled for many years. Winters have been too nice.

I remember waaaaaay back when.......musta been 37 or 38 years ago. We lived near Garland then and the kids were all little. Bob worked in Lincoln and just happened to be on 1st shift at the time.

It had started snowing early in the day and kept getting worse as the day went on. Bob got off work and made it to Garland where he stopped to get some needed supplies. Milk and beer are all I can remember. Then he headed out into the country for home. He got within a mile of home before getting stuck. The next to last thing he did before starting to walk was to pull up the antenna on the car and tie a hanky to it. That was one of the smartest things he ever did. We had no idea how bad this was going to be. The 'last' thing he did was grab the milk and the beer. He made it home with the milk. The snow was too deep, the conditions were exhausting, and the beer was too much to carry. It was deposited in a snow drift somewhere along the road.

When it finally quit snowing enough to venture out, Bob headed to get the car. Remember that hanky? Without that, he would never have found the car. It was completely buried. A shovel wasn't going to begin to dig it out. The Seward newspaper wanted to take a picture of it, but the roads kept drifting shut and they couldn't get to it. Eventually the county plows came and dug it out. They also pulled it home as it wouldn't start. The engine was packed with snow.

When school finally resumed, school buses couldn't make their normal routes. Too many roads were one lane, and the snow piled so high that the buses couldn't make the turns. I will never forget the first day Casey was able to go back to school. What a relief! We all had cabin fever by then! We also needed groceries!!!!

We are spoiled. We haven't had winters like that since then. Back when people did what needed to be done and life went on.