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Blizzard of 1936

Picture of Blizzard of 1936
    FEB. 22, 1936 - Snowdrift a short distance south of the intersection at the SW Corner of Section 17 in Springfield Twp. near former Fisher farm.

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    On January 25, 1936, it began to snow; it turned cold and the wind began to blow. Many mornings it was 25 degrees below zero and it was not until after the middle of February that this type of weather ended. The roads were blocked with snow and at that time there were no road maintainers or snowplows as we have today, to open the roads. This meant clearing the roadway of snow with a shovel by hand.

     It did not snow every day, but the wind seemed to blow much of the time, closing the opened roads with drifting snow. Because of shoveling snow by hand when opening the roads, the snow that was scooped out of the roadway was not thrown very far to the side. These higher piles of newly shoveled snow caused the roads to drift to a greater depth the next time, than the time before.

     Instead of trying to keep the ever-drifting, snow-clogged roads open, fences were taken down and many of the farmers's fields were used as roadways by horse drawn bobsleds and some automobiles. It was during this siege of snow, cold and wind that we had our last bobsled ride to town.

Picture of Blizzard of 1936
    FEB. 23, 1936 - Snowdrift 80 rods south of the intersection at NW corner of Section 17 in Springfield Twp.

              Arthur J. Fisher

* ~ * ~ *

I REMEMBER -

. . . . . how we looked forward to when the empty lot would be covered with new snow. Playmates would join you to make a large pattern of a six spoke wheel in the snow. By the process of eeny-meeny-miney-mo, out goes you, the Fox was chosen. Now you were ready to play the game of Fox and Goose. The center of the wheel was home base and after the Fox had caught everyone, a new game started with a different person being the Fox.

               authorMrs Melvin (Eleanor Mensing) Licht