Everyone has their winter storm to talk about. To them it is the worst to hit the area in their lifetime. We had one back in 36 that stands out in my mind as the coldest and snowiest that occurred in my almost four score years. It was the last year in high school for me and I had been driving the old twenty seven Dodge to school taking about five other students from the Nunica and Spoonville area along too. The old Dodge was beginning to get tired and sometimes we wondere d if it would last until graduation. The radiator was leaking so it would not hold anti-freeze. I would have to fill it in the morning before starting out and then when we got to school I would have to open the pet cocks and drain it so it would not freez e up during the day. After school it was necessary to go through the whole process again.
Up until the end of January it had been almost a normal winter with a moderate amount of snow, and about normal temperatures. Early in February a storm was brewing as we went to school and as the day progressed it became violent . Visibility was down to nothing, to me it was nothing more than normal as I was inside the school and not worried about what was going on outside. In the early afternoon I was called to the office to receive a telephone call. It was my father and he inf ormed me of the situation suggesting that we not attempt to come home that night as the roads were full and almost impassable. We would have to find some kind of lodging in town. Neither he nor I had any idea where six of us students could stay. I went back to the class room and announced our predicament.
It took less than three minutes for students of Coopersville to offer us a place to stay in town. I received an invitation from Max Reynolds to stay at his house. His parents welcomed me in with open arms. As it turned out our stay lasted for the whol e month of February. I ended up as almost a member of the family.
For the next couple of days thing continued to go down hill . The snow continued to come and the temperature to fall. Apollis Griswald was living in the house that Cliff Murray does now. He was having physical problems . The roads wer e so bad that a doctor could not get in or him out. Our family went over and sat with him but there was not much they could do. Kenneth, my brother walked the half mile over there and froze his face, It blistered up and scabbed over. Mr. Griswald did not make it and died on the 6th. To get the body out the road commission sent in two trucks in tandem to open up a hole for the hearse to take the body out. It was a trench just wide enough for the hearse to pass through and snow was pushed up on the sides six feet and more deep. That night the storm continued to blow filling the trench to the top. The only way in or out of the Spoonville area was by team of horses that traveled through the fields fallowing routes that the snow was no t as deep. There were many dairy farms about at that time and the milk had to get out. so the farmers took turns each day.
I would come home on week ends by hitch hiking. Most of the time U.S. 16 was open at least one lane. It was more than three weeks later that the snow plows attempted to open up the Spoonville road. Two trucks hooked to gather would hit the drifts and go about six feet, then back up and try again. It took all day just to open up the first half mile. Snow was so high on the sides that the old Dodge could travel the length of the road and if you were in the field along side you wou ld see a bit of the car. The old Dodge had sat in front of the High School for the entire month not even being started once. I was a bit apprehensive about it. But I didn't need to be as It started on the second pull of the crank.
I've seen many a snow storm since that were a bit fierce and some had a cold snap go with them but none in my memory was as strong and lasted for so long accompanied with so much cold temperature.
The County trucks of those days did not have the power of todays trucks. They could only go at a slow speed pushing the snow to the edge of the road shoulder leaving just room to travel down the center of the road. This quickly filled in making t he snow deeper than ever. Todays trucks with the added power and speed throw the snow way back away from the road.
My dad never liked to shovel snow . He would take a shovel and pack the snow down and walk on top of it. During the big snow of thirty six. He had packed his path to the barn so many times that it had built up so that it was at least three feet high. The steps from the back door of the house had four steps. The packed snow was so deep he could leave the back door by stepping up.
All of the neighbors kept track of each other and there was much sharing of fuel and food back and forth. Everyone looked out for his neighbor.