The Drift

The weather outside is really terrible. Actually it is more like inconvenient when you contrast it to the winters of my youth. A little ice is nothing compared to the unbelievable "Drift" I once encountered.

It was the winter of 1955 just about the time I turned six. We lived a mile and a half east of 71 highway on County Road DD just north of Sheldon. The terrain there consists of the rolling grassy parts of southern Vernon County which was once all virgin prairie. My mother was teaching the 5th grade in Nevada. My sister was still going to school in Sheldon, so I rode to town with my mother each day. I was in kindergarten each morning for half a day at Franklin school. In the afternoons I stayed at my grandmother's house on South Cedar.

On this one day it began to get cold and started snowing around noon time. I am not sure if they let school out early or not, but I think they did. My mother came to pick me up to go home. The flakes that were falling were the largest I had ever seen. Can you remember what it looks like in a full blown snow when the flakes sweep by the windshield almost hypnotically? Through the side windows we could see the snow as it began to get deeper on the fields. U.S. 71 highway was as I recall not in too bad of shape. Our family car was a '51 or '52 Nash. Now that's going back in history isn't it? It was a two tone gray in color and that's all I can remember about the car.

We made good progress in the afternoon snow storm, and it did not seem to take too long to reach our turn at DD. In those days DD was not paved. Like many of our gravel roads even today it was not very wide, and the ditches were hard to see.

About a quarter of a mile east of the highway was the Missouri Pacific Railroad Line. This was one of my favorite attractions as a youth. In those days there were a lot of freight trains traveling constantly on the tracks. They even had a passenger train still running. As a boy I could see the trains and hear the whistle from our house. They were awesome.

The road made a steep rise as you approached the crossing of those tracks. Even though we were not traveling fast it was too late to stop when we crested the hill. The wind had blown a huge snow drift level with the tracks on the downward east side of the rail crossing.

It seems like yesterday, I see that car hood as we skid into the drift. The snow came up level with the top of the hood and we ground to an instant halt.

Young as I was, I knew that the car was not going to be able to move out of the snow on its own. I was not frightened, but I knew this was not going to be a normal situation.

Beverly Fowler and his family lived only a few hundred feet down the road from us. My mother told me she could not carry me and walk in the deep snow at the same time, but that she had to go for help. She turned off the engine so that there would be no fumes, made sure I was bundled up good and took off for their farm. The only time I was really scared was when she disappeared into the dense falling snow. You could only see maybe 50 feet. It seemed like a long time in child time, but it was probably not really that long until I saw another person coming my way.

Mr. Fowler came walking towards the car. I remember that I could not see his face because he had something over it to keep out the wind and snow. He did not even try to have me take a step in the snow. Instead he carried me all the way to their home.

Later my father and the rest of the farmers got some of the road cleared at least enough for tractors.

That evening we all got on our Farmall M tractor to go to the neighbors for a party. That tractor did not have a cab, but it did have a canvas snap on cover.

My dad had made a box that fit on the PTO bars, and we huddled there for the trip to the Lutes family home.

Once there, the adults from the nearby farms talked about the storm, played pinochle, and let us kids play monopoly. Later our mothers made snow ice cream for us. It tasted better than ice cream from the store, or at least we thought so.

There was no top to the tractor cover. On the way home I could see the brightest stars I had ever seen.

The storm had passed. It had left a lot of snow and drifts. In the soft moonlight, everything looked clean, peaceful, and fresh. Our winter of past few days reminded me that we in a lot of ways are not as prepared as we were back then.

Most of us are used to a frenzied pace of life. We have no snow tires or other equipment to deal with the elements. There is a lesson in this. Look to the south where our neighbors have lost power and are suffering. We need to make sure we can enjoy our winters because we are prepared. A snow drift is only fun when it is a nice childhood memory.