The blizzard of 1966
I was 13 years old when the Blizzard of 1966 unleashed its fury on the Northern Plains. It was the worst blizzard in decades, certainly the worst in my young memory. It brought all human (and animal) activity to a standstill. I was 13 years old when the Blizzard of 1966 unleashed its fury on the Northern Plains. Well, not all activities. We lived in a one-room log cabin with a wood stove to heat the house. As the oldest son at home, it was my responsibility to see there was enough wood sawed every evening. I had to saw the wood, split it, haul it inside and stack it in the wood box every evening before I could go outside and play with my siblings and cousins who lived over the hill from us. I usually hauled in and stacked enough sawed logs in the house to last until the following afternoon, when I would get off the bus and do it all over again.
It was my younger brother Mark's job to pump water at our water pump located about 30 yards from the house. A water pipe ran underground from the water pump to a tank in the log cabin. I don't recall him ever filling that tank because the water was tough to pump. Every now and then, the water pipe froze, and we would have to haul water from Fort Totten in the trunk of Mom's old '50 Chevy. We supplemented that drinking water with melted snow water to wash dishes, wash our hands and face, and other stuff that needed cleaning.
The eve before the Big Blizzard struck, I was home alone with my younger siblings. Mom, her sister Loretta and Loretta's boyfriend, Mike, went to watch my older cousin, (Big) Dave Longie, play in the district basketball tournament. Big Dave was the star basketball player for the Oberon Bulldogs' high school basketball team. My aunt Loretta (and Mike), who lived just over the hill from us, often went places with Mom during the winter due to the trouble of keeping cars running. Back then, automobiles were old and unreliable. Winters were harsh, and temperatures remained well below zero for days. Therefore, keeping a car running during the coldest months of the winter was brutal. I also recalled the winds were more potent, and it snowed a lot more.
As the babysitter, I could sleep in Mom's bed until she returned. Sleeping in Mom's bed was a real treat because it was soft and had warm blankets. Most of us kids slept up in the loft on mattresses on the loft's hard floor with heavy quilts to keep us warm. One benefit of sleeping in the loft was it was the warmest place to be in the winter. We often had to fight over the quilt during the winter when the fire in the stove went out during the night. However, it quickly warmed up when the fire started again in the morning. Before falling asleep in Mom's bed, I remember hearing the wind blowing hard and the house becoming cold. I also wondered why Mom wasn't home.
I woke up sometime during the night because the fire in the wood stove had gone out, the house was freezing, and Mom still wasn't home. By then, I could hear the storm raging outside and realized there probably wouldn't be any school that was okay with me, so I went back to sleep. The school wasn't my favorite place anyway, I usually missed around 20 days per year, so I looked forward to another day of staying home. My younger brother Cory was making a fire the next time I woke up. Cory was an early riser and often would get up to help Mom start the fire, or he would begin to do it under her supervision.
Once the house warmed up, one of us made breakfast out of rolled oats or cornmeal, commodities we received every month. I wasn't worried or surprised that Mom wasn't home. People often were stranded in bad weather and stayed at the homes of relatives or friends.' And, sometimes, Mom would work at the valley picking potatoes and would be gone for several days, so it wasn't the first time we kids were home alone for more than a day. We knew how to take care of ourselves.
Anyway, the strong wind blew through the cracks in the log cabin, which meant we had to burn more wood than usual to keep warm. We soon ran out of wood and had to venture outside for more. However, the wind was so strong, there was too much-blowing snow, and the temperature was too cold that there was no way we could saw wood outside. I decided to move the sawhorse into the porch out of the wind and cold. I think it was my younger brother Cory who suggested, why don't we just move the sawhorse inside the house? There were no adults around to tell us. "No, you can't do that," so that is what we did. With sawhorse inside the house where it was warm, I had no trouble getting my younger brothers Mark and Cory to help me saw wood. We had plenty of sawed logs to keep us warm. My two younger brothers, Marshall (Pete) and Chris, were too young to help. My other younger sibling, April, was also too young to saw wood. Plus, she was a girl, and girls weren't allowed to saw wood back then, at least not while I was able to.
There were ten of us in our family. I was the fifth oldest; I had one older brother, three older sisters, four younger brothers, and one younger sister. My oldest brother, Phillip John, had hitchhiked to California a couple of years earlier; Martina and Marcy were in a boarding school at Maddock, ND. They came home on weekends. My other older sister Becky usually stayed in Fort Totten with her friends or at my aunt Alvina's home. That left me as the oldest child at home and the chief babysitter. Our stepdad had also hitched to California with his nephews the previous summer. (Three of my older siblings, Phillip, Martina, and Marcy, as well as a younger brother, Mark, have since taken the journey over the star road home and now reside in the Spirit World.)
Here is where my memory is blurred. I remember we were home alone the entire first day of the storm. I do not remember if it was during the first day or the second of the storm that I decided to see how our cousins, Aunt Loretta's children, were doing. As mentioned earlier, my aunt Loretta lived right over the hill from us. Anyway, Cory and I dressed warmly and decided to see how they were doing.
Once outside, I was shocked at how terrible the conditions were. I was used to winter storms, but none came nowhere near as frightful as this one. The storm was ferocious! I recall the wind blowing hard and lots of blowing snow, but the trail we took to our aunt's home was relatively clear, and we had walked over the path hundreds of times, so we made the half a mile to our cousin's home without any problems. Our cousins were doing okay, but their house was cold because they ran low on wood. I asked them if they wanted to come and stay with us, and they agreed. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the five younger ones, three older ones were at boarding school at Wahpeton, North Dakota, and the oldest, Big Dave, stayed in Fort Totten. They put on their winter coats, and we all braved the wind and bitter cold back to our house.
As children, our cousins and we often got "caught" outside in a blizzard, but we knew Crow Hill like the back of our hands, so we always made it home when caught in a storm. And, we never played very far from home during the winter. Once, when I tried to walk to Fort Totten, a distance of five miles, a storm came up when I was about halfway there--faced with a choice of walking across an open field or turning around and making my way through the woods back to our log cabin. I chose to turn around because I was concerned if the storm got any worse, there was a good chance I wouldn't make it across the two miles of open fields. The trail back home went through the woods, coming out right above our cabin. I knew I wouldn't lose my way no matter how hard it stormed. But it was tough going. I was so cold when I did make it home my older sister Marcy had to put me to bed with a bunch of blankets, and she gave me either hot tea or soup to drink.
Anyway, I'll get back to my story about the blizzard of 1966. The house was warm, we didn't have adult supervision, and we enjoyed visiting and playing games. It was getting dark when we cooked some popcorn and decided to play some games which I can't recall now. We had dozens of games back then to help us pass the time during the long winter days, none of which I can remember now. We had just started to play when we heard a noise coming from the porch, which scared the heck out of us. We knew no one should be outside in this weather. As we stood still listening, the blanket over the door began to move. In alarm, we watched as the door swung open, and a person, wholly wrapped in a blanket and covered in the snow, came in. The person shook off the blanket, and we could see it was - Mom!
We were so happy to see her. She sat down and asked us how we were doing. We were more concerned about how she was doing. She was tired and looked almost frozen. She said they became stranded in Fort Totten after the game. They started to worry about us on the second day of the storm and decided to walk home. Against the advice of her host, she and Aunt Loretta wrapped a blanket around themselves and, with Mike leading the way, started walking. They walked five miles in the worst storm in decades because they worried about us. Astonishing and oh so courageous!
It wasn't long before Mike came after our cousins and took them home.
After the storm cleared, the snowbanks were a sight to behold. Many of them were taller than our house. We tried to walk up as many as we could. The snowplows cleared the roads in a couple of days, and we could return to school. Stretches of the road were like going through a canyon; the snow piled high on each side. The snow quickly melted, and all the meltwater gave us kids another opportunity to play, but that's another story. And that is my recollection of the storm of the century.
Well, not all activities. We lived in a one-room log cabin with a wood stove to heat the house. As the oldest son at home, it was my responsibility to see there was enough wood sawed every evening. I had to saw the wood, split it, haul it inside and stack it in the woodbox every evening before I could go outside and play with my siblings and cousins who lived over the hill from us. I usually hauled in and stacked enough sawed logs in the house to last until the following afternoon, when I would get off the bus and do it all over again.
My younger brother, Mark's job was to pump water from the water pump located about 30 yards from the house. A water pipe ran underground from the water pump to a tank in the log cabin. I don't recall him ever filling up that tank because the pump handle was tough to pump. Every now and then, the water pipe froze, and we would have to haul water from Fort Totten in the trunk of Mom's old Chevy. We supplemented that drinking water with melted snow water to wash dishes, wash our hands and face, and other household items.
The eve before the Big Blizzard struck, I was home alone with my younger siblings. Mom, her sister Loretta and Loretta's boyfriend, Mike, went to watch my older cousin, (Big) Dave Longie, play in the district basketball tournament. Big Dave was the star basketball player for the Oberon Bulldogs' high school basketball team. My aunt Loretta (and Mike), who lived just over the hill from us, often went places with Mom during the winter due to the trouble of keeping cars running. Back then, the cars were old and unreliable, and the winters were harsh. Temperatures remained well below zero for days at a time. Therefore, keeping a car running during the coldest winter months was difficult. I also recalled the winds were more potent, and it snowed a lot more.
As the babysitter, I could sleep in Mom's bed until she returned. Sleeping in Mom's bed was a real treat because it was soft and had warm blankets. Most of us kids slept up in the loft on mattresses on the loft's hard floor with heavy quilts to keep us warm. One benefit of sleeping in the loft was it was the warmest place to be in the winter. We often had to fight each other for a piece of the quilt during the winter when the nights became cold. It quickly warmed up when the fire started again in the morning. Before falling asleep in Mom's bed, I remember hearing the wind blowing hard and the house becoming freezing. I also wondered why Mom wasn't home.
I woke up sometime during the night because the fire in the wood stove had gone out, the house was cold, and Mom still wasn't home. By then, I could hear the storm raging outside and realized there probably wouldn't be any school that was okay with me, so I went back to sleep. The school wasn't my favorite place anyway, I usually missed around 20 days per year, so I looked forward to another day of staying home. My younger brother Cory was making a fire the next time I woke up. Cory was an early riser and often would get up to help Mom start the fire, or he would begin to do it under her supervision.
Once the house warmed up, one of us made breakfast of either rolled oats or cornmeal, commodities we received every month. I wasn't worried or surprised that Mom wasn't home. People often became stranded in bad weather or stayed the night at the home of relatives or friends. And, sometimes, Mom would work at the valley picking potatoes, so it wasn't the first time we kids were home alone for more than a day. We knew how to take care of ourselves.
Anyway, the strong wind blew through the cracks in the log cabin, which meant we had to burn more wood than usual to keep warm. We soon ran out of wood and had to venture outside for more. However, the wind was so strong, there was too much-blowing snow, and the temperature was too cold that there was no way we could saw wood outside. I decided to move the sawhorse into the porch out of the wind and cold. I think it was my younger brother Cory who suggested, why don't we just move the sawhorse inside the house? There were no adults around to tell us. "No, you can't do that," so that is what we did. With sawhorse inside the house where it was warm, I had no trouble getting my younger brothers Mark and Cory to help me saw wood. We had plenty of sawed logs to keep us warm. My two younger brothers, Marshall (Pete) and Chris, were too young to help. And my younger sister, April, was also too young to saw wood. Plus, she was a girl, and girls didn't saw or cut wood back then, at least not while I could.
There were ten of us in our family. I was the fifth oldest. I had one older brother, three older sisters, four younger brothers, and one younger sister. My oldest brother, Phillip John, had hitchhiked to California a couple of years earlier, and two older sisters, Martina and Marcy, were in a boarding school at Maddock, ND. They came home on weekends. My other older sister Becky usually stayed in Fort Totten with her friends or at my aunt Alvina's home. That left me as the oldest child at home and the chief babysitter. Our stepdad had also hitched to California with his nephews the previous summer. (Three of my older siblings, Phillip, Martina, and Marcy, as well as a younger brother, Mark, have since taken the journey over the star road home and now reside in the Spirit World.)
Here is where my memory is blurred. I remember we were home alone the entire first day of the storm, but I do not remember if it was the first day or the second when I decided to see how our cousins, Aunt Loretta's children, were doing. As mentioned earlier, my aunt Loretta lived right over the hill from us. Anyway, Cory and I dressed warmly and decided to see how they were doing.
Once outside, I was shocked at how terrible the conditions were. I was used to winter storms, but none came nowhere near as bad as this one. The storm was ferocious! I recall the wind blowing hard and lots of blowing snow, but the trail we took to our aunt's home was relatively clear, and we had been over it hundreds of times, so we made the half a mile to our cousin's home without any problems. Our cousins were doing okay, but their house was cold because they recently ran out of wood. I asked them if they wanted to come and stay at our home, and they agreed. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the five younger ones, three older ones were at boarding school at Wahpeton, North Dakota, and the oldest, Big Dave, stayed in Fort Totten. They put on their winter coats, and we all braved the ferocious wind and bitter cold back to our house.
As children, our cousins and we often got "caught" outside in a blizzard, but we knew Crow Hill like the back of our hands, so we always made it home when caught in a storm. And, we never played very far from home during the winter. Once, when I tried to walk to Fort Totten, a distance of five miles, a storm came up when I was about halfway to the Fort, and I had to turn around. I could have walked across an open field or turned around and made my way through the woods back to our log cabin. I was concerned if the storm got any worse, there was a good chance I wouldn't make it across the two miles of open fields, so I chose to turn around. The trail back home was sheltered from the wind as it went through the woods, coming out above our cabin. I knew I wouldn't lose my way no matter how hard it stormed. But it was tough going. I was so cold when I did make it home my older sister Marcy put me to bed with a bunch of blankets, and she gave me either hot tea or soup to drink.
Anyway, I will go back to my story about the blizzard of 1966. The house was warm, and we didn't have adult supervision, which gave us the freedom to play games customarily meant for outside. It was getting dark when we cooked some popcorn and decided to play some games which I can't recall now. We knew dozens of games back then to help us pass the time during the long winter days, none of which I can remember now. We had just started to play when we heard a noise coming from the porch, which scared the heck out of us. We knew no one should be outside in this weather. As we stood still, listening to the noise, the blanket over the door began to move. In alarm, we watched as the door swung open, and a person, wholly wrapped in a blanket and covered in snow, came in. The person shook off the blanket, and we could see it was - Mom!
We were so happy to see her. She sat down and asked us how we were doing. We were more concerned about how she was doing. She was covered with snow and looked almost frozen. She said they became stranded in Fort Totten after the game. Their concern for us became so great on the second day of the storm they decided to walk home. Against the advice of her host, she and Aunt Loretta wrapped a blanket around themselves and, with Mike leading the way, started walking. Mom, who was several years older than Lorretta and Mike, said she lagged about 100 yards behind them. A dangerous thing to do when walking in a blizzard. They walked five miles in the worst storm in decades because they worried about us. Astonishing and oh so courageous!
It wasn't long before Mike came after our cousins and took them home.
After the storm cleared, the snowbanks were a sight to behold. Many of them were taller than our house. We tried to walk up as many as we could. The snowplows cleared the roads in a couple of days, and we could return to school. Stretches of the road were like going through a canyon, with tall snowbanks on each side. The snow melted very quickly, and all the meltwater presented us, kids, with another opportunity to play, but that's another story. And that is my recollection of the storm of the century.
