Anybody got any cool winter stories

squatting dog

squatting dog

We don't have as far to go, as we've already been
Location
Arkansas, and also Florida
I've got a couple.
Before I joined the service in May of 68 the old house I was staying at in Vermont was buried in a snowstorm that closed the main highway (rt 110) from Chelsea to barre for 3 days.
The Storm: March 20–23, 1968 What Happened:
A nor’easter dumped 15–24 inches of heavy, wet snow across central Vermont, with winds of 30–50 mph piling drifts 4–8 feet high along Route 110. The Chelsea-to-Washington stretch, a hilly, wooded corridor, was buried, closing the road for three days and stranding folks.

What Happened was The storm started as rain on March 20 but turned to snow overnight into March 21, dumping 1–2 feet across Orange and Washington counties. Winds of 30–50 mph created 4–6 foot drifts in valleys and on exposed roads like VT-110, which runs north-south through forested hills prone to blow-overs. State plows struggled with the volume, and temperatures hovered around 20°F, keeping everything locked in. By March 22, reports noted closures on secondary routes like 110, 302, and parts of I-89 feeders, with Barre-area schools and businesses shuttered for 2–3 days. Cleanup dragged into March 24 as equipment got bogged down.

We were at ground zero, (between Chelsea and Washington) and as luck would have it, we ran out of firewood. Ended up burning some of the furniture until I got the stubborn chainsaw running and was able to cut some wood. Because it was going to be green, I tried to only cut smaller trees. 3-5 inch maple knowing they wouldn't burn perfectly. Beat the alternative though. (smile)

I also brought soup out to a stranded semi truck driver on the highway who couldn't leave the truck because it was the USPS. Took big cat dozers to open the road.
Funny follow up... when the snow finally melted a bit, the stumps of the tree's we, (I had cut stood over my
head...5' 5") lol

You might think that was the worst winter ever, but, It was only one story about some of the brutal winters we survived, However...
The Blizzard of 1978 was one of New England’s most infamous storms, and Vermont got clobbered. It dumped 20–30 inches of snow across the state, with winds of 50–80 mph creating drifts up to 10 feet in places like Orange County. The blizzard shut down Vermont for days—Interstate 89 was a parking lot, and secondary roads like VT-110 were impassable until heavy equipment rolled in. Power outages hit thousands.

Wife and I were living in East Brookfield then and decided to visit some friends in Chelsea about 10 miles away. It started snowing but nobody thought mush about it. However, as the snow kept piling up, wife and I decided to headed for home. Got a little over halfway, pushing snow up over the bumper and hood of our old Chevy. Going down a steep hill, we crossed the county line and discovered that the county hadn't plowed the road yet. Pushed on until we got stuck and couldn't go any further.

Being a little under 5 miles from home, we left the car and started walking on foot. Things got bad (temp around 0, wind blowing hard) and we were starting to get really frozen when I saw a farmers house. He let us in, took one look at the wife and built up a roaring fire. Slowly we started to thaw. I'm not lying here My wife's hair was so froze that I could snap it off. 3 days later, I fired up the cranky old 8N tractor and pulled the chevy out of the snowbank and brought it home.
Just another Vermont winter. Couldn't wait for Vermont's unofficial 5th season... Mud. LOL



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We’ve had a few major blizzards.

In 66, I was 12 and the blizzard stranded many cars on I81 near our home.

The local volunteer fire department brought the people in from the highway on snowmobiles and made arrangements with local families to put them up until the roads reopened.

We had a young military man, still a teenager, and an old woman stay with us for a couple of days until their vehicles could be dug out and moved to the school parking lot by volunteer firemen.

I remember my mother packing some food for both of them to take with them when she sent them on their way.

My mother and several others also cooked what food they could and sent it to the firehouse for the volunteers and others that were stranded with no accommodations.

I think that our contribution was Spanish rice and baked beans made in old granite ware roasting pans.

Things were a bit different then.

Today, I would rather sleep on the floor at the firehouse and eat food from the vending machines instead of spending the night in a home with people that I didn’t know.
 
My late husband, small daughter and I spent the night on the highway in a major snowstorm once at the Ohio/Michigan border. In a Pinto. With one blanket and no boots.

We spent the night turning the car on-and-off with me wavering between whether we were going to die of hypothermia or die carbon dioxide poisoning. I was pretty sure we were going to die...LOL.

It was a long night. Peeing in a Dixie cup in a Pinto was the highlight.
 
I should add that because we were pushing between 20-24 inches of snow, it had built up under the hood surrounding the engine. When I pulled it out of the snowbank, it wouldn't turn over. Thought maybe I had left the lights or something on and drained the battery. Imagine my surprise when I popped the hood and found all that snow had froze and completely locked up the engine pulleys.
 
squatting dog said:
I've got a couple.
Before I joined the service in May of 68 the old house I was staying at in Vermont was buried in a snowstorm that closed the main highway (rt 110) from Chelsea to barre for 3 days.
The Storm: March 20–23, 1968 What Happened:
A nor’easter dumped 15–24 inches of heavy, wet snow across central Vermont, with winds of 30–50 mph piling drifts 4–8 feet high along Route 110. The Chelsea-to-Washington stretch, a hilly, wooded corridor, was buried, closing the road for three days and stranding folks.

What Happened was The storm started as rain on March 20 but turned to snow overnight into March 21, dumping 1–2 feet across Orange and Washington counties. Winds of 30–50 mph created 4–6 foot drifts in valleys and on exposed roads like VT-110, which runs north-south through forested hills prone to blow-overs. State plows struggled with the volume, and temperatures hovered around 20°F, keeping everything locked in. By March 22, reports noted closures on secondary routes like 110, 302, and parts of I-89 feeders, with Barre-area schools and businesses shuttered for 2–3 days. Cleanup dragged into March 24 as equipment got bogged down.

We were at ground zero, (between Chelsea and Washington) and as luck would have it, we ran out of firewood. Ended up burning some of the furniture until I got the stubborn chainsaw running and was able to cut some wood. Because it was going to be green, I tried to only cut smaller trees. 3-5 inch maple knowing they wouldn't burn perfectly. Beat the alternative though. (smile)

I also brought soup out to a stranded semi truck driver on the highway who couldn't leave the truck because it was the USPS. Took big cat dozers to open the road.
Funny follow up... when the snow finally melted a bit, the stumps of the tree's we, (I had cut stood over my
head...5' 5") lol

You might think that was the worst winter ever, but, It was only one story about some of the brutal winters we survived, However...
The Blizzard of 1978 was one of New England’s most infamous storms, and Vermont got clobbered. It dumped 20–30 inches of snow across the state, with winds of 50–80 mph creating drifts up to 10 feet in places like Orange County. The blizzard shut down Vermont for days—Interstate 89 was a parking lot, and secondary roads like VT-110 were impassable until heavy equipment rolled in. Power outages hit thousands.

Wife and I were living in East Brookfield then and decided to visit some friends in Chelsea about 10 miles away. It started snowing but nobody thought mush about it. However, as the snow kept piling up, wife and I decided to headed for home. Got a little over halfway, pushing snow up over the bumper and hood of our old Chevy. Going down a steep hill, we crossed the county line and discovered that the county hadn't plowed the road yet. Pushed on until we got stuck and couldn't go any further.

Being a little under 5 miles from home, we left the car and started walking on foot. Things got bad (temp around 0, wind blowing hard) and we were starting to get really frozen when I saw a farmers house. He let us in, took one look at the wife and built up a roaring fire. Slowly we started to thaw. I'm not lying here My wife's hair was so froze that I could snap it off. 3 days later, I fired up the cranky old 8N tractor and pulled the chevy out of the snowbank and brought it home.
Just another Vermont winter. Couldn't wait for Vermont's unofficial 5th season... Mud. LOL

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You mention the Blizzard of '78. We lived in Providence RI. They were accustomed to snow but this one took everyone by surprise. The city was closed for the better part of a week. Many motorists were stranded on I-95 and other highways. We were within walking distance of home and a supermarket. An Italian friend with curly hair wore an Afro and after walking for an hour in the snow his head looked the size of a laundry basket.

We had two people stay with us until the heating oil ran out and the truck couldn't get through. Then we made our way to one of their apartments.
 
Great stories! This one, however, is just the opposite of lots of snow.

I lived in South and Central Texas most of my life and snow was a very rare event. One winter, we had about an inch or two of snow. We were all bug eyed at it. The only snow we had ever seen was the spray on stuff on the Christmas tree. My younger brother was looking out the window and said, "Don't go out there! It's poison!" We all laughed and it has become one of those family sayings.

He explained to me last year that the reason he said that was because a week or two before, Dad had spread a white powder in the laundry room to poison rats. We had been firmly warned not to touch it. When brother saw the snow, he thought it was rat poison.

Fast forward many decades...we had about an inch of snow, maybe even less. The neighbors had two young children. They built a small campfire and were roasting marshmallows. The kiddos came over and invited me to join them. I took some hotdog fixings and we had a weenie roast. They made a "sled" using a cardboard box to slide down a very small hill. It was so much fun, watching them.

Ten years later, I had moved to Colorado. They came to visit at the end of June. The previous winter had been record snowfall and there was still several feet of snow at the top of the mountain. We drove up there and they had soooo much fun, hiking through the snowy woods, having snowball fights, making snow angels.
 
My nephew was born on a snowplow in Illinois.

My brother, the father, and the snowplow driver helped with the delivery. A whopping 12-lb 3oz boy, mostly noggin.

His Mom and Dad wrapped him up in the snowplow driver's spare coat, and the driver took them the rest of the way to the hospital, doing about 4-5 mph.

Baby Michael was so big, after he checked out ok, they sent him to the pediatrics unit instead of the nursery.

He was named after the snowplow driver.
 
When I moved to Illinois I had a 96 Firebird, I worked about a 45 min. trip away, on a dry day.
I was let off early when the 1st snow came due to my drive, it took me 3 hours to get home
in that Chicago traffic. Coming down about 1/2 inch an hour.
About half way home I had to use a rest room realllly bad but all the off ramps were uphill. Even
though I had cinder blocks in the rear of the car, that rear wheel drive I knew was going to give me trouble
on the not plowed uphill ramps.
I seriously weighed my options of getting off to a restroom or just going in the seat and cleaning it later.
I chose to go off, soon as I approached an off ramp with no cars on it so I would not have to stop on the hill.
Went immediately to a donut shop that was open, ran in and asked to use the restroom.
The male said they had no public restroom Sorry. The woman saw the panic on my face and waved me over
and pointed to go use theirs.
I left them a ten dollar tip and thanked her.
I never drove again in that car with over an inch of snow and always made sure I was on empty if I did have to go out.
 
My almost-3-year-old niece had never seen snow, so when we heard it was snowing in Jacksonville we all bundled into the car and headed out for the 3-hour drive. When we got there, there was a HALF-INCH (at most) on the ground and the city had absolutely shut down (having moved there from the Frozen North, we were highly amused).

We stopped in the parking lot of an office building, scraped up enough snow to have a snow fight and pulled her around on the dusting of snow on a piece of plastic and convinced her she was having a sled ride.

Then, we headed back to Orlando. We were surprised to find no traffic on I-95, even more surprised when we were pulled over by a state trooper who indignantly asked us if we didn't know the highway was closed??? Uh, no, we got onto it by a ramp as usual and it wasn't blocked off. He acted like he was going to give us a ticket, but just escorted us to the next off-ramp and we made our way home another way.

When we got home, it was dark and we could see tiny flakes of snow in the headlights. It was SNOWING in Orlando!

She doesn't remember the occasion but we joke about it, the Trip To See The (Very Little) Snow.
 
Not a "cool" story, but a frightening one. It was the March '93 "Blizzard of the Century." State shut down, everything was impassable, but that's not the scary part... my daughter had a friend staying with us for a sleepover. There was plenty of food in the house when the snow started, but three days later, I discovered that two little girls could eat as much as a couple of linebackers. 😁 Fortunately there was enough, but I was nervous for a while!
 
I spent 2 years in the Falkland Islands, after
the war, to help in the building of an airfield,
during the winter, the temperature was down
to -36C, if I used a spanner to fix a machine
and laid it down on metal, outside, it stuck to
it, the heat that got in the metal, would melt
the ice and the air temperature would freeze
it immediately, to solve this problem, I carried
a toffee hammer, on a string, to get the spanner
off the ice.

A funny thing, that happened while I was there,
was that the buses, that took us to and from work,
were old London, red Single Deckers, the front
screens got dirty from the slush being thrown up,
on to them, so the moment that the driver got a
handful of snow and cleaned it, the screen broke,
we didn't have spare screens, so new ones were
made, using plywood, with a slot cut at the driver's
eye level, wooden windscreens are humorous, but
not safe, luckily the buses didn't travel far or fast,
they were still the same all year round.

Mike.
 
When I was a kid and there was a blizzard, we'd stand by the radio early in the morning waiting to hear whether our schools were closed. One year when I was in high school, it was already storming very early so I got mostly dressed...except for putting on my skirt. This was back in the day when girls weren't allowed to wear jeans.

School was open, so I put on my sNOwpants, boots, storm coat, and trudged the almost two miles to school. We were only allowed to ride the bus if we lived more than two miles away.

When I finally got there and went to my locker to shed the sNOwpants, boots and storm coat, I realized I'd forgotten to put on my skirt! Donned my gear and trudged back home to put on the skirt, trudged the almost-two miles back to school, just in time for an announcement that school was closing for the day. By noon that day, I'd already walked just under eight miles in a blizzard.

Another time, we had a blizzard with sNOw blowing so hard that it drifted up past the doors to the roof on our front porch. My brother and I had to get the storm window open in his bedroom and get out with our skiis to ski down the porch roof and to school because if we'd waited for the plows to get there, we'd have been late.
 
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Just thought of another adventure. (I've had many). :) I had just gotten to Arkansas with the last of the cars I had to move. (this was after 3 trips with the bus). No sooner had I got there, the phone rang and my fellow racing buddy in Ca. had decided that he really wanted my red modified. (that's right... the one I just hauled accross the country).

It was winter, (seems like I'm always moving in the winter) but, this was the year we had no snow at Christmas and since he offered to pay me a hefty sum to deliver, I thought... why not. So, I unhooked the trailer and packed to head back. At the last minute, the wife gave me a sleeping bag; just in case. Heck, I had my field jacket and saw no need for the bag, but, to keep the wife happy I took it.

Somewhere past the west side of Oklahoma City, it started to snow. Just light and I figured, no big deal. However, by the time I got to the other side of Amarillo, I was in a full blown blizzard. Snow blowing, cars and trucks running off the highway. Then, they shut down the interstate. I pulled off the off ramp and at the intersection, everything was closed. I parked in a quicky mart and faced the back of the truck into the wind. Temperature kept dropping and being low on gas, I couldn't leave the truck running. Suddenly I was glad for the sleeping bag. In the morning, I felt like a popsickle and was sure glad when they opened and I could get some hot coffee in me.

Resumed the trip and before long, it was clear sailing to Ca.
Lesson learned... always trust the wife. ;)



racecar and Olds.jpg put back together.jpg
 
Nov. 1959 U S Navy boot camp Great Lakes Il. Snow predicted for overnight. That meant getting up to shovel the walks. My plan was to get salt from the chow hall on our evening meal. We all did, salted our walks slept all night. Seems that amounted to theft but since the entire company took salt no action was taken.

Early 1980's I was working as a heavy equipment field mechanic. That job is about repairing heavy equipment where ever it breaks down in the country side.

A Grove 30 ton crane was left at a job site which was normal. The ground was soft which was normal. The crane sunk a few inches into the soft ground which was normal & normally no big deal. Not needed right away the crane sat for a few days. During that time the weather changed & the ground froze trapping all the wheels.

Now the crane was needed. The equipment operator not realizing the wheels were frozen into the ground tried to drive away. Didn't move because the pinon gear in the rear snapped leaving the drive shaft to rotate.

That is where repairing in the field took ingenuity. Extended the stabilizing out riggers to lift the crane bed above so I could access the rear. 4x8 sheet of plywood so I wouldn't have to lay on the bare ground. More plywood to block the cold air. Propane space heater to provide some comfort in the 5 to 10 degree weather.

Ready to get to work. Disconnected the drive shaft, drained the fluid, removed the axels, removed the bolts holding the rear in. Moved back so I could use a cable device to pull the rear. YAY the rear is out on the plywood. Meanwhile the pinion gear I radioed the supply shop to bring me was delivered.

Put the gear in place set the lash. Lash being the space needed between the splines of the pionion gear & the ring gear that turns the axels that turns the wheels. Got help placing the rear on a floor jack pad so we could shove it back into the rear housing. Gasket in place, rear bolted in, axels back in fluid refilled.

My job was done, called for a back hoe to dig out the wheels. Never a dull day during those years in the field.
 
Heard you @Knight. I was a proud heavy equipment field mechanic too. Worked for the state of VT upkeeping the fleet of snowplows and other chores like changing the cyl. heads on a Cat9 dozer at the end of the airport runway expansion in Burlington Vermont when it was 15-20 below plus wind.

Then, out in the desert, I'd be changing Differentials on dump trucks on the side of I-15 out by the wind mills, or in the gravel pits out by the gold fields in Imperial valley. (hot hot). Or maybe changing the transmission on an 862 John Deere scraper out by the geothermal plants. Through all this, I still loved my job. :)


Imperial hot.jpg john-deere 862.jpg
 
While stationed in California with the Army, I took leave for Christmas in rural southeast Michigan. I was caught in the blizzard of 77-78. People were stranded and snow drifts everywhere and people were getting rescued by snow mobile. I myself got stuck several times at night on country roads. It was actually one of the best times in my life. Had plenty of fun
 
Living on the OH/PA border less than an hour from Lake Erie, we were privy to more than our share of snowstorms

One of the more memorable ones was 1991 or 92, I can’t remember when it was snowing and storming so bad I knew my son was not going to be able to get home from his job at the Quik fill in the next town over. The roads were closing

I put his snowmobile suit and helmet in a bag and I got out my Yamaha 440 and drove it on all the main roads to his job. I took his car home barely getting off the road when I did get home. We had to get dug out the next day.

leaving him the snowmobile so he could have a safe trip home after he closed up at one in the morning.
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I managed to get the car home, but barely got it off the road. By morning the car was completely buried, but I didn’t think to get a picture of it, I was busy trying to get someone to come and dig us out lol.
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