My husband got a brand new car late in 1966 and it was only after several months of begging that he grudgingly let me drive it to work on Jan. 26, 1967. Ah, that was the day the infamous blizzard of '67 hit! Parents began pulling students out of school by 11:00 that morning.

      By 4:00 p.m., cars were this way and that in the streets and after I got shoveled out from a parking place in late afternoon, I begged a stranger to at least drive that blasted new car past the clog at the parking spots, telling him that my husband would divorce me if I got a scratch on it. Can you believe that he refused a damsel in distress?

      Lady Luck smiled on me while I skidded and slipped for 6 blocks and with great wisdom decided to drive to my husband's work place and ride home with him! It took us a little over 4 hours to make the 20 minute drive home. (We were able to pick up the extra car 5 days later!)

      Of course, the electricity was off by that time so we had no heat, no lights, no water, no nothing! Filling the toilet tank with melted snow did allow us to flush and left-over Christmas candles made the atmosphere cheery. (Do you believe that?)

      We awoke on Jan 27, 1967, to a blanket of snow. Heck, it was a mattress of snow! And still snowing! We ended up with only 27”, but the drifts were horrendous.

      We didn't stop to think that one of those little propane heaters could kill us in an enclosed space so we nailed an old army blanket over a doorway and huddled in the family room, watching the frost creep up a foot on the inside of the door! We were delirious with joy when the power came back on in about 36 hours.

      We shoveled a space the size of a card table on the patio for the dogs. They were mighty puzzled by the snow wall about 4' high! After a slight warming spell a day or so later, the snow crusted over and they climbed out of their prison. In fact, they walked over the top of the chain link fence!

      Thank goodness for gas stoves! We were able to make instant coffee (We didn’t care what color the snow was!) and heat up something to eat for 4 days. When the emergency was over, we had a beautiful floor-to-ceiling gas fireplace mounted on a wall in case we got 'blizzarded' again! (To this day it sits idle, but that lovely pilot light is still on.)

      We were unaware that the National Guard tanks had been called out to make some sort of track through the downtown for ambulances and fire trucks. People with snowmobiles delivered food and medicine to those in need. No radio station, no newspaper!

      Once our road was opened four days later and we were able to drive to town, the fun began. The snow had been piled high in the center of the streets and you could neither see over it nor make a left or right turn! It was about 10 days before school buses could run because they could not navigate turns on county roads with 8' snow drifts.

      Most mature (well, old) folks learned to stock up on toilet paper, reading material, canned food, water, medicine, a down comforter, batteries, and the necessities of life in late fall. We learned our lesson the hard way!

      Fortunately, we had not heard of PC’s and there were no chat rooms way back then. Just think how horrible computer withdrawal symptoms would have been!

      Januaries are ugly months. Hurry up February!