The Big Snow

In this photo, the Carters (of Everbreeze) are shown bringing milk down to Edgington Lane during the Big Snow of 1950. The milk was for the hospitals.

The Big Snow began just before Thanksgiving in 1950 and left 22 inches behind. The kids had a field day being out of school, but it was so deep they couldn't easily get anywhere either.

I remember my father digging a trench between our house and my grandparents house on Maple. There is a famous picture somewhere, of one of us going along the trench and all you can see is a hat sticking up.

Rosemary Front told me that the doctor who lived next door to her spent an hour digging out his car only to realize that he could not drive anywhere. I sure don't remember any snowplows! And I don't think there were any complaints of cabin fever...at least not at our house where there were so many people to interact with.

In winter we used to fight for possession of the "register". The furnace grate that gave off that warm heat. The one in the front hallway was always covered with wet mittens giving off a damp sheep smell to the whole house. The coatrack in the hall was so covered with big winter coats and scarfs that it looked like a giant. And leggings....how many of you remember wearing wool leggings? In our family if you lost your mittens you had to wear socks on your hands instead so mittens were guarded carefully.

One year my father built a giant sled in his workshop in the basement. I can remember him planing and sanding the runners. We gleefully awaited the launching. When we finally got it up to Sled Riding Hill at Oglebay it stubbornly stayed put and refused to go down the hill loaded with many Quinns....needed metal runners, I believe. Using our old sleds we would tear down that hill and my dad would take the car down near the Pine Room, let us tie our sleds to the back bumper and ride up the hill to start all over....never mind the exhaust fumes or the fact that we could have swished out sideways in front of an on-coming car...and when we would be completely exhausted...we would have hot chocolate from the refreshment stand. Ahhhhhhhhhh.