"When icicles hang by the wall, This surely reflects cold weather and, yes, I can remember
into my childhood when our milk was delivered in glass bottles to
our front doorstep. Occasionally in winter someone in our family
accidentally forgot the several quart bottles of milk out on the
porch in sub-zero weather. Upon bringing them indoors, found that
the icy cream (which rose to the top of the container) along with
the paper cap at the top of the bottles had been pushed upward an
inch or two and naturally the milk below it had nearly frozen
solid.
I recall that, during the entire 14 years I attended the
Kewaunee Public School (1934-1947), school was called off very
few times because of extreme cold or too much snow. Obviously
what made the difference was that the great majority of the
students walked to and from school each day.
There were two occasions within the past several years that
unfortunately had to be canceled for Charlotte and me due to
snowstorms and too much snow. The first one was most unusual and
unfortunate, an experience we’ll not forget for a long time.
Prior to that scheduled event I had put on a few slide programs
dealing with winter, snow and the life of Snowflake Bentley, a
humble bachelor farmer (1865-1931) from near Jericho, Vermont
and, at the time, the world’s expert micro-photographer of
snowflakes.
Eventually I got to know Rob Nurre of Madison who does
incredibly fine impersonations, the one we first saw dealing with
early Wisconsin land surveyors. Rob and I became good friends
and it was he who suggested that we do a program together
featuring Snowflake Bentley. I would do the introduction and
the colored slides of winter and Snowflake Bentley’s life, and he
would later perform the impersonation of Mr. W. A. Bentley.
Rob and I presented the program at the Whitefish Dunes Nature
Center and it went over very well. We decided to do an expanded
version for the annual winter meeting, January 27 1996, of the
Wisconsin Association of Environmental Educators, to be held at
Treehaven near Tomahawk, environmental learning center of
UW-Stevens Point.
I spent a few weeks putting together a dozen or more handouts
dealing with snow, snow crystals, icicles, different forms of
snow, the Eskimos’ extensive vocabulary dealing with snow, many
hands-on activities, etc. intended for the 100 or more teachers
of all grades who would be in attendance. The plan Charlotte and
I came up with was to drive as far as Gleason, around 25 miles
south of Treehaven, and stay overnight with our good friend Allen
Bell and drive to Treehaven early the following morning. By t he
time we arrived at Allen’s it was already snowing quite heavily.
By morning, when we were to leave to give the program, one of the
worst blizzards in years had taken over the region and we were
stranded, car nearly buried in snow, all roads closed to traffic
and most people, including us, confined to the indoors for the
duration of the onslaught. Yes, we had to cancel our program
about Snowflake Bentley and snow and never did get to present it
again!
Late that morning we finally shoveled ourselves out and began
inching our way back to Egg Harbor, only to find that our road
still had not been plowed. We left our car parked on the side of
the Hillside Road a half mile or so from home, waded through over
a foot or more of snow and finally made it into our house from
where we called the county highway department, pleading for a
snowplow to come help us.
The second unfortunate cancellation occurred yesterday,
Saturday, Feb. 7. For years Charlotte and I had been wishing we
could experience, on snowshoes, the really deep snow of the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan. We came to know Richard and Mary Kordes a
few years ago who live one and a half miles from Lake Superior,
north of Calumet on the Keweenaw Peninsula and northwest of the
village of Ahmeek. Their snowfall so far this year has amounted
to around 180 inches (15 feet!).
The date was set with our friends, I had given our snowshoes a
fresh coat of spar varnish several days before, and we had
purchased two new sets of "easy on, easy off" snowshoe
bindings and were all set to go. And then more and more snow
came accompanied by low temperatures and gusty winds. We might
have made it to their place OK but with the weather forecast for
the following Monday calling for more snow on the day of our
return home, we decided to play it safe and try for another date
this month. During the meantime I will photograph the incredible
beauty of winter surrounding us.
It was Snowflake Bentley who said, "Oh for a thousand
hands, a thousand cameras, to preserve more of this exquisite
beauty so lavishly scattered over the earth. And yet there
should be no despair, for this miracle, like unto the miracle of
spring’s awakening, will come and come again for all time, either
here or somewhere in the universe, for beauty and life and love
are eternal, the things that make the universe worth-while and
justify its existence."
The beauty of one snow crystal, multiplied billions
of times, can bring great changes in people's winter plans. Roy Lukes photo
from W.A."Snowflake" Bentley negative.
And Dick the shepherd
blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk
comes frozen home in the pail." – Shakespeare
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 02/14/2004.
© Copyright 2004 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
