Winter of 1949

Memories of the winter of 1949 as told by Glen W. Probst (pictures taken by GWP):

Cree Probst carrying groceries on the path from the road to home, winter 1948-49.

Mom was returning from Guy Coleman's store, approximately a two-mile round trip, where she had bought some groceries, including some Twinkies for me, my favorite food then. She had to walk. I don't remember Mom ever driving a car. She's wearing her fur coat. Since our circle driveway was too much to clear in the winter, we had a path straight out to the gate in front. That's where we caught the bus for school. Although winters were generally heavy, the winter of 1949 was especially severe. There was so much snow you could not see the fences. Caterpillars had to be used to clear the roads, and this made the banks on either side about 12 feet high.

Karl Probst home in Midway, winter 1948-49.

This is another perspective of the trail from the road to our house. We had an old Heatrola coal burning stove. In the winter it got really cold at night. I used to have a large cobble rock, about two-thirds the size of a soccer ball, that I'd picked out of the rocks lining our circle driveway. My sisters Nila, Madelyn, Marilyn, and Joyce also used rocks to keep warm at night. We heated these rock on the top of the Heatrola for about an hour before going to bed. I still remember carrying my rock upstairs to go to bed. I wrapped it in a towel or cloth so it wouldn't burn me. It kept me warm most of the night. You can see the upstairs window where I slept. Even so, I still kept the window cracked a little in the winter. Dad always got up early and started a fire in the stove, and it took some time for the house to heat up again.

Probst home in Midway, winter of 1948-49.

Dad parked our Black 1941 Ford Coupe out here on the road, since the driveway was too difficult to shovel. I've got a picture of it somewhere and will try to find it. Meanwhile, you can Google 1941 Ford (images) and see what it looked like. The black part on the snow bank is an old blanket, probably one Mom made, Dad kept it out there to throw over the hood of the car to keep it from freezing in the winter. Here you can get an idea of how massive the snow banks were.

I remember driving the milk cows into the barn one morning during the winter of '49. It was about 6:00 AM and dark. There was so much snow on the ground it was like descending into the mouth of a tunnel for the cows to go through the barn door. The temperature went to about 45º degrees below zero at least once that winter.