Snow, Snow, Snow

It’s been a winter for stories. Snow. More snow. Then another 12 inches to top what has already fallen. The snow piles grow to the point that we wish for longer handles on the snow shovels—and more liniment for sore backs.

I’m reminded of the snowy days of my youth, when we walked a mile to the country school. One winter day while we were in school, a blizzard blew in, cutting visibility to zero and piling up snow beyond knee deep in little time at all. By three p.m., the fathers began arriving, walking of course because no one drove much in those days. The dads gathered around the big wood burning stove in back of the school, warming up and sharing snow stories of their youth. They had come to school to accompany their kids home, to make sure they didn’t get lost in the blizzard.

My little brothers and I only had a mile to walk—some of the kids had more than two miles. At four o’clock, when school ended for the day, we set out for home. Pa made sure we were, as was said in those days, “all bundled up” as we headed north. Pa wearing his six buckle boots walked first, making a trail, making sure we continued heading in the right direction through the driving snow. Brother Darrel followed in his tracks, then brother Donald, and I brought up the rear—to make sure everyone kept going, and nobody got lost.
Winter stories are never forgotten.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Winter in the north demands respect. Sometimes we forget.

Announcement: In April—my newest book available: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Wisconsin: Nature’s Army at Work. Wisconsin Historical Society Press. (A History of the CCC in Wisconsin.)

UPCOMING EVENTS:

March 3, 1:00 p.m. McFarland Historical Society, McFarland Municipal Bldg. Topic: Simple Things: Lessons from the family farm.

PURCHASING BOOKS AND DVDs:

Order your signed Apps books and DVDs from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

Popular recent Books:
Simple Things: Lessons from the Family Farm (fun to read in winter)

Garden Wisdom (Time to begin planning for the upcoming garden season)

Old Farm Country Cookbook (Try some of yesterday’s recipes)

The Quiet Season (All about winter)

Cold as Thunder (A look into the future)

The Travels of Increase Joseph (Historical fiction about Wisconsin before 1900)