Two Blizzards Forty Years A

Two Blizzards Forty-Years Apart

As Recalled by Walter Wolfe

 Blizzard of 2010 

As I write this note, the howling wind is driving  snowflakes into, John’s face, like tiny glass shards; he is out on the Kubota tractor plowing with a rear blade the latest wintry assault to our hilly, 2750 foot driveway. However, as long as the 35MPH northeast wind continues, his efforts may be nearly hopeless (“resistance is futile” to borrow the mantra from the Star Trek: The Next Generation nemeses, The Borg)

                                                                                                                    Figure 1 Damascus Blizzard 2006-Wolfe Home

During Last weekend’s record-setting snow storm, he spent over 48 nearly continuous hours - with a few catnaps in between – opening up our access to civilization. Yesterday, in anticipation of another big snowfall, I cleared 18” of snow off our patio roof with John’s help to reduce the possibility of collapse. By the way, all this winter furry reminds me of the great blizzard of 1966

Blizzard of 1966



1966 Blizzard at Hay & Rose Wolfe Farm

Let me take you back over 40-years to another blizzard even worse than described above.

The 1966 blizzard, which Washington, D.C. didn’t record as such, slammed into Frederick County to include Mother and Dad’s farm, some 50 miles north of D.C., Myersville, Frederick County. We were in the storm’s epicenter on winding Churchill Road,   Myersville, Maryland was our country address then. My Aunt Bobby and Uncle Ed came up to the farm for the weekend, but the blizzard kept them there for three more days. Did I say that that was my 21^st birthday weekend - January 30^th – and that my Aunt Bobby and Uncle bought me a bottle of Cutty Sark (I didn't have the heart to tell her that didn't like scotch) to celebrate my coming of Maryland’s drinking-age.  

Anyway, Dad insisted that I keep the driveway clear even as conditions worsened to whiteout. On the evening of the storm’s first day, I got our large, 1954 Case tractor stuck in a 10 foot drift. I thought this failed effort would impress my father as to the extreme blizzard conditions- you know, “the Borg” principal. I was dead wrong! Dad told me to hop on the smaller, but higher torque diesel Case and keep on the job. An hour later I ditched the second machine off the driveway culvert because I just couldn’t see where I was going. That failed effort finally convinced Dad to give up his plan of beating Mother Nature and just let it be.

On Wednesday, February 3, 1966, I opened our driveway (how we got the tractor "un-ditched" is another story), while the State removed the high drifts on Route 40 – some topped at nearly 20 feet – the highway finally opened. Of course, our trapped guest soon departed. I have added a second  farm photo in contrast with the above snow scene.

Below is a photo of the Wolfe farm five months after the great 1966 blizzard -.ironically, we had one of the worse droughts that summer in decades. Any way you can view quite a difference between the above and this picture.  
 

Wolfe Farm Summer, 1966 Summer Drought