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Life in the slow lane

    The windstorm on last Thursday brought back a couple of storm memories from my young days. The first was a snowstorm in 1956 I believe. The other storm was around the same time of year in the late fifties.

There was a bad snowstorm that took place and our farm was located on the old 21 highway. The wind was howling and it was snowing heavily. We were hunkered down at home when there was a knock at the door. The public health nurse in our community had gotten stuck in the middle of the road going up the hill by Wally Gray’s farm. She had seen our yard light when she drove by so she had walked back to our lane and walked up the hill to our house. I was too young to remember all the details but I do remember her. 

    The next day Dad and my brothers Lynn and Garth took the team of horses up the road toward Wally Gray’s as they knew the plow would be coming as we lived on then 21 highway. When they approached where they thought the car would be, all that they could see was the aerial from the car sticking up. That was how much snow had filled up around and over the car. If the public health nurse had stayed in the car she would have perished for sure. Thankfully she was safe. It took a lot of work to get the car shovelled out and pulled out. If the plow had come along the plow operator would never have seen the car if my family had not been there to dig her out.

    The other storm I refer to is a hailstorm that hit our home. I just remember Mom getting us to hold pillows up against the windows until the storm blew over. While it did not last long, it was loud. No windows were broken so the pillows worked. I can remember the ground being covered with hailstones.

 Not so many years ago a plow wind went through our area on Harding fair day and tore a lot of trees up in our ravine. Sorta glad I missed that one!