Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

The Blizzard of 1950
 
Everyone who lived in Ohio in 1950 remembers the blizzard. No one could get out of their houses. We had to hunker down, try to stay warm and figure out what to eat. The gas was low on our stoves, so both of the latter were questionable. My mother toasted some soybeans on the top of the stove for us to have for a snack. I have never really liked soy beans….they are not peanuts but you do what you have to do.
 
If you remember, we still didn’t have indoor plumbing. My mother asked Betty and me to take the chamber potty to the outhouse to empty it. We had a sled, so why not? We took it out of the front door, put it on the sled and pulled it around to the back of the house. When we got there, we were faced with five-foot (or more) snow drifts in front of the back porch door and sidewalk to the outhouse. I was twelve and Betty was ten and the drifts were taller than we were. What to do?  We abandoned the pot on the sled on top of a drift because we could go no further. I don’t know how that story ended but I suppose my Dad had to take care of it because Betty and I couldn’t.
 
My Dad was out all day and night for days running a road grader (or some such) scraping snow all over town. I don’t know if the road grader was owned by the town, the Dunlap Company, or some other entity. We were not a family that wore sunglasses at that time, so when my Dad finally came home, his eyes were blood red from the glare of the snow and lack of sleep.
 
Remember that I told you my Dad was “a man for all seasons”. And by-the-way, he didn’t get paid for his magnificent job.

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck