The Cold Winter

My sister reminded me that January 21, 1985 had a record low of -21*F in our hometown. 

That was a Monday.  Our parents had left quite suddenly the Saturday afternoon two days prior, to start driving north for our Grandma's funeral.  

Not knowing how long they would be gone, they did not want us to miss school.  We were in the capable hands of a 75-year-old family friend, who often stayed with us when our parents were out-of-town. 

By the time we woke up Sunday morning, we were snowed in. At some point the oil for the furnace congealed in the underground pipe that brought it from the tank (on the other side of the yard/pasture fence) to the furnace in the cellar.  I'm not sure why we didn't use the wood stove. (Perhaps because my dad & I did not finish our chore of cutting wood that Saturday afternoon, before we got the phone call that Grandma had died.) 

At any rate we were COLD!  And there was no school ... for days and days ... I don't think we went back to school until our parents returned 1.5 weeks later!

I remember our family friend sitting in the middle of the kitchen with the electric oven on (thank goodness we didn't lose power!) & door open and her feet resting on a chair in front of the oven door, trying to keep warm. 

I remember her son and our pastor each bringing a Kerosun heater to help us stay warm.  

It's the coldest (outdoors) I ever experienced until I moved to the Midwest.  It made for memories, that's for sure.  I don't know how we filled our days, or how our 75-year-old friend had energy to take care of us or groceries to feed us! But we all survived!

Some day maybe I'll reminisce about the winter of '77 and being out of school for a month ... or the ice storms of '93 at Virginia Tech.  What winter storm memories do you have?