Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Snow

In my rambling thoughts as I don't sleep well these nights (the steroids for brain surgery keep me hyper and not sleeping as well) I got to thinking about the "Blizzard of '51" which is a legend here in Nashville. Since it is nearing time here for usually cold weather and snow (following the January thaw we are going through now), I was remembering this event in '51. It snowed for four days, and ended up with 11 inches of ice and snow, temperatures down to -13 degrees (yes that is minus). Many , many homes and businesses were without heat and electricity. Many like us had coal furnaces so even without the electric "stoker" we still had heat, and many had fireplaces. Somehow we kept our water going (we had a well). There was a grocery about two miles from us and Mr. Gillihan was close by and able to open his grocery...Daddy and I took the sled and walked to this grocery at least once, up the Gallatin road which was deserted, so we were not without any provisions. Our house had a long, gentle, slope from the far back to the front yard, around the house and down the drive, across the creek and up the hill to the road. Daddy, and neighbor kids and I built a sled "run" which was very long???don't know, in reality, but seemed long!!! and we road that sled over and over...even in those cold temperatures. I still have that sled!!! What fun days those were. There was no school in this area for two weeks. Daddy was always ready to "play" with us and we had such great family times growing up. I truly had a great childhood. I looked the statistics up on a historical Nashville site to get the facts correct for this true phenomenon here .
God always surprises us with weather, even the Bible talks about snow in Psalm 147..."He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes." verse 16 .A real blessing this last two days, my reading is better and I read an entire book this week...still some pages to wonder about, but less wondering "what is this word"...Thank you, God, for restoring my reading!

2 comments:

  1. You truly are a walking miracle and testament to the joy to be found in Christ. I'm in awe of your progress. Was it you who just had brain surgery last week, or is it me who's lost my mind? Bravo.

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  2. I was born during that blizzard. The ambulance could not make it across the Cumberland so I was born in the doctor's office on Woodland Street. A few days later someone was able to bring my greatgrandmother to help care for me and they got her up to my parents' apartment by putting her on a galvanized trash can lid and using it for a sled! Katrina Waltenbaugh

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