Little Blizzard

I grew up in Nebraska. I am also old enough that I remember trudging to school in thigh high snow. And no that is not a parent's tale to show children how tough I had it. It just was.

In school we learned about blizzards in history. Houses could be almost completely covered with snow. People would have to dig out because when they opened the door all they saw was a wall of snow.

We learned that sometimes people dug tunnels in the snow to get from one place to another. Farmers would tie ropes from the house to the barn. Livestock had to be tended even in a blizzard. The farmer would hold onto the rope so he would make it to the barn he could not see because of the whiteout of the blizzard. Then he would use the rope to make it safely back to the house.

One story that always stuck with me was the one of the teacher of a country school.  The temperature was freezing cold and the snow blowing so hard that she decided to keep the children at the school with her until conditions eased.

But the wood to keep the one room school warm ran out. The blizzard was still in full force. She had to get the children to safety.

She tied a rope around her waist and around the waist of a student. Each student was tied to the one before him/her.

They went out into the cold blowing snow. They could not see anything. There was no way to know where they were nor to judge how far they had gone. That brave teacher managed to reach safety with all her little charges in tow.

We just had a blizzard a few days ago. It was a real blizzard. It takes that blinding whiteout to make a true blizzard.

In less than twenty-four hours we received more than 12  inches of snow.  The snow plow cleaned our street at least 3 times that morning. You could not tell.

The thing is that this was a little blizzard. We had worse when I was a child. There were much worse blizzards before then. A little blizzard.