Stormy winter weather in Bruce County!

Just hearing the forecast that a storm is approaching and then a warning of wind and heavy flurries can bring back hordes of memories. A glance through one of Mum’s diaries can have the same effect:

1947
 

• Feb. 4 and 5 - Very stormy and cold [so indoor jobs were in order: she scalded and drew three roosters and tried making pressed chicken].
• Feb. 9 - We were supposed to go to Mother’s for birthday dinner for Evelyn but it was too stormy.
• March 3 - The worst storm of the winter. The snow is over the clothesline, 10-foot drift at west window.
• March 4 - It was very stormy again.
• March 5 - The storm appears to be over but no trains going yet. Can only see the [house] chimney from the barn window.
• March 6 - The chickens were supposed to come from Seilings to-day but the trains weren’t running.
• March 7 - Planes are dropping yeast on all the towns around these days.
• March 9 - The train got through.
• March 10 - Grandpa, Gail, Cecil and I were to town with the light sleigh. The highway isn’t open yet. [I would have been at school. Daddy likely took me with Minnie and Maude, the heavy team, and sleigh.]

March 25, after several spring-like days, another storm occurred, with the highway closed until the 30th.
Incidentally, the previous year they had started seeding on the 26th of March. Not much has changed, has it?

Second Installment:

But some things have changed. Nowadays, we expect to see a snowblower in our driveway and (except for Highway 21!) the roads are usually opened within hours. The same diary reminds us that keeping roads open used to be a neighbourhood effort. Cars were left at the highway or in a garage at the 15th and travel on the Southline was by horse and sleigh.
 

• Feb. 6, 1946 - The men disced the road this aft.
• Jan. 14, 1947 - Cecil and Eugene[Cameron] disced and rolled the road.

Eleven years later, in February, 1958, Mum noted “Very stormy” from Saturday the 8th to the 12th. Twelve hardy parishioners attended the Church of Messiah on Sunday. School buses didn’t run Monday or Tuesday. The storm returned on the 16th.
 

• Feb. 17 - Cecil and Donald [Owens] walked to town for [milk] cans.
• Feb. 18 - No school. Terribly stormy. The men got to the corner with tractors.
• Feb. 19 – Russ [Buttery-helpful neighbour] made several trips to the corner with the team [and milk].

Again in 1959, winter moved in with a vengeance.
 

• Jan. 19 - No bus - no plough.
• Jan. 22 - Bus and milk truck were stuck at Henry’s [Farrell] for hours. Gail and Bernice [Stewart] went to Aunt Mary’s [Farrell] for the night.
• Jan. 23 - Coldest yet. Pipes froze.
• Feb. 5 - No plough.
• Feb. 6 - No plough.
• Feb. 11 – Bill [Farrell] and Cecil took the milk down with the two tractors.

Since the township plough (on the front of a truck) could not get through the drifts on the hill between us and the highway, the farmers were obliged to take over if they were to get their milk to the cheese factory. Daddy took our Case tractor with the high rear wheels and narrow front ones down the road, over the bridge and up the hill to the highway, making enough of a track that neighbours could follow with tractors and wagons, loaded with milk cans, over a fairly smooth, though not necessarily level, roadway. The milk truck met them at the highway. For four days, this track also provided access to town for supplies.
 

• Feb. 13 - I went down to the corner on the tractor. We took the car to town. Drove it home over the pitchholes.
• Feb. 15 - We went to church. [Soon after the plough managed to work its way to the top of the hill.] The men shoveled to help the snowplough all day. We sent dinner down.

Shovellers included Uncle Albert [Hollands], Bob Orr, Daddy, and likely Eddie Owens, Bill Farrell, Donald Owens, maybe Elmer Walpole. I think Don Emmerton was the truck driver; photos courtesy of Ruth Anne Robinson

By five o’clock, I was able to walk through to meet my ride back to university in London with Doug Love.



In spite of all these efforts, driving remained treacherous. Cars were soon stuck and had to be towed to town.
 

• Feb. 19 - Cecil has to take Gail and go for her every day.
• Feb. 21 - The plough got stuck in the cut on the big hill. Gail had to walk home from town.
• Feb. 22 - Plough still stuck. Had to wait for hours for Les [Howe - plough driver, maybe road superintendent?] to get through the cut.

I’m sure that names change and coping mechanisms are different but winter still disorganizes life in Bruce County.

– Ruth Anne Hollands Robinson