As a child in Idaho I can remember back forty years to the cold winters with snow butt deep to a tall Indian.....We were not Native Americans,yet! We did have some Tall Indians!
Mother grew up on the prairies far below where we lived. She swears they could sled off the fence rows ;but she only grew up to be five foot tall.What does she know!
I remember Ice cycles hanging from the eaves of our log house that were taller than me.was always broken hearted when my brothers knocked them down so they didn't fall on me......we woke every morning to bedroom windows frosted on the inside...Jack Frost broke in while we were asleep and painted forest and fairy dell on our windows from his winter white pallet.
We were the proud owners of an army surplus 4x4 to drive through our hills in the winter. We had horses to pull it out when it got stuck! I remember Dad burning off a set of snow tires in two weeks trying to get home in the deep snow.It was a dirt road and he was to lazy to walk. Walking was reserved for children. It must have been to deep to plow! Though, that new car he bought like clock work every two years; plowed a lot of snow by the time he was done with one.
I remember walking on the hard crusty snow to the bus stop, about half a mile down the road. Half a mile down and four miles up! That was fun till you hit a soft spot in the snow and filled your winter boots with the white ice crystals. we caught the bus at the community mail boxes. Our little community was comprised of our family and was a private community with no school bus nor snow plows above the bus stop.That was where we met several families who lived below our property who weren't related......I think! Though in the area we lived in and with our big family relationships seemed to change and flux with the changing of the moon....or at the whim of the moon shiner!
Grandpa dragged a plow behind his work horses for many years, before Dad discovered one of he drivers had a weakness for "shine!" He'd take that snow plow driver out a hot thermos of coffee about half filled with "Shine". From there on he didn't plow to straight, he did plow deep! He also plowed all the way to the top of our mountain. At the peril of his job being taken away from him for using the county plow ant fuel to plow an extra five miles!
It wasn't a good idea to follow his job to closely while leaving the hill. There were some interesting "drop off" on one side of the road.You could roll a car quite a ways down if you got over to far. At times he got pretty close...That must have been some pretty strong coffee, the old man brewed!
The walk on the crust of the snow wasn't all that bad..we had several stops to make to get us warm. We needed to carry in wood for our Grandmother and feed the horses,and the pigs who's sty was near our uncles house.If the wind was right and he was on the correct shift he would give us a ride to the bus.Mostly we walked snow, sleet, or wind storm.On really cold cold days we could hear the trees pop like rifle fire. They would freeze and explode! I was always afraid I would be standing near one when it went OFF!
One of the kids decided he COULD put his tongue against one of the mail boxes in below zero weather...Of course his wet tongue against the extremely cold metal stuck like glue.
"HEWP! HEWP!" He bellered as soon as he heard the old school bus growl it's way up the mountain road. "Do't eve m hwere." He tried to yell without moving frozen lips of tongue stuck firmly to the metal....The boys were getting desperate....zippers were ready to come down, I don't know for certain what they had in mind cause they made me turn my back and hold my mittens over my eyes...
They waited as long as they could. One remarked in Soto voice "You can't do that Joe;the bus is full of GIRLS." I never did ask just what it was they could not do!!!
The bus driver stopped the smoking growling old bus....the door came open..Stone faced he climbed from the bus..He ordered us onto the cold bus. Our feet Never thawed out the whole ride.....Never EVER! The seats crackled under us as we plopped down on them they were so cold....We sat very still with our hands clenched together as though in prayer..WE knew he was gonna' tell our Dad we somehow caused this travesty and Everything would "Hit the Fan!"
For a moment he stood like a statue, He tooo looked like he was frozen in place....The child screamed just once as he snatched that kid off the frozen mail box; leaving hair hide and all, the remnants of a child's frozen tongue firmly attached to the old mail box. I swear he talked like he was frozen solid to that chunk of metal for the rest of the school year. We all had a good laugh when we saw him with a make shift bandage on his tongue......An old wash cloth was tied to his tongue...and knotted right at the top!
