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| Kerri Thoreson |
Worst winter bragging rights
Granted, there's been a lot of snow this winter and it likely will set records but I enjoy how possessive old-timers can be about which winter was the worst. In the '90s we had a few doozies and ice storm was memorable in its devastation and disruption of lives. But with all due respect, there are a lot of us who agree that the winter of 1968-'69 was THE winter to remember. I've written before about going into labor in the evening of Jan. 31, 1969, when the roads in Coeur d'Alene were near impassable. I was able to make it to Kootenai Memorial in time thanks to my father persuading a city snow plow driver to plow out the family car in our driveway on Sherman Avenue. Alyssa's birth date of Feb. 1, 1969, is on the books as the coldest day of the coldest winter in 25 years at the time.
Tim Turrell recalls it snowing every day from Christmas through the end of February and many days of -20 temperatures that winter. Pipes freezing and breaking, along with the huge amount of snow created hardships all around. He said a clever fellow sold dune buggy flags that stuck up 10 feet from the back car bumpers so you could see traffic over the snow berms. Tim and some high school friends snowshoed to lake homes around Hayden to shovel snow off the roofs, earning enough money to buy a car that summer. Tim retired last year from the Idaho Transportation Dept. and said the other memorable winters were 1992-'93 and 1996-'97, when he had a front-row seat in the cab of a snow plow!
And kids, now that you have one snow day behind you ... back in 1968-'69 there were more than two weeks of snow days but no spring break!
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Tyanne Jacklin is the lone Idahoan competing in this weekend's Spokane Interstate Rodeo Queen competition. The contestants will be judged on horsemanship, public speaking, interview and rodeo knowledge. Tyanne's mom, Gayle, is a renowned mule racer from the Jacklin Seed family. We wish Tyanne all the best, you can also cast a vote for her at www.kix961.com/pages/missrodeo.html.
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Alice Hardison is an active and spry 94-year-old who regularly attends the Post Falls Historical Society Banquet. She wasn't the most senior citizen in attendance, though, last Saturday. Ann Dutcher, a former Post Falls school teacher, has four years on Alice, although she doesn't look a day over 80.
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Susan Jacobson of Post Falls will celebrate her birthday on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Since it's her fabulous 50th, I figure starting the party a few days early is fitting.
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Small world ... Dorothy Paladichuk lives in Sidney, Mont., and thought she recognized my name in an engagement announcement in her local paper. She also reads The Press online as her sister, Edna Martin, and brother-in-law Roy, and nieces Ginger Martin Flynn and Leslie Martin Linde all live in Coeur d'Alene. The betrothed in the above mentioned announcement is my oldest daughter, Alyssa, who is marrying Marge Chadderdon's great nephew this summer in eastern Montana. The small world part of this story is I've known the Martin family for over 40 years. Leslie and I were school chums and her mother, Edna, sewed the dress for my own wedding to Alyssa's father.
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Skip Hissong found himself on the wrong side of a Lookout Pass avalanche on I-90 Sunday, waiting over four hours for the freeway to be cleared. But he said dozens of roadside snowmen were created by stranded motorists with nothing but time on their hands and an abundance of snow.
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A winter wonderland visual ... if snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled, I think we now have enough to populate the entire Panhandle.
Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. "Main Street" appears in The Press every Wednesday. Kerri can be reached at rkthor52@aol.com or on her blog http://fyinorthidaho.blogspot.com.
Dorothy Paladichuk wrote on Jan 30, 2008 10:00 PM: