Snow Stories from Sister Sally, Guest Blog

Sister Sally sent me a couple snow stories to share.

This story actually involves another school I went to between colleges. It was Higgins Classical Institute in Charleston, Maine, not the college in Machias as she says. It is about due North/Northwest on Route 1 and other smaller routes approximately 85 miles from Rockland.

She says: “I remember another snowstorm that involved getting you back to Machias [Charleston]. I believe it was the day Bette was born.” [Actually I think it was the return trip after I’d been home to celebrate Bette being born on my birthday, March 5, 1962.] She continues, “Dad and I took you in the old Desoto. I believe we picked someone up in Belfast, something about the sport of curling comes to mind.” [This was my friend and classmate at Higgins, Betty also. Her family was curlers at the club in Belfast. I tried out the sport once with Betty which was a lot of fun.]

“Anyway, we trudged onward to Machias [Charleston] pretty much through a blizzard. Dad got tired [I presume on the way back home], so I had to drive being all of 16 or 17 at the time. The Good Lord must have been looking over us. It’s a wonder we ever survived any of those blizzards! Looking at my Arizona sunshine, I consider myself very lucky.”

A funny note about the directions to Charleston I looked up on the internet. The 85 plus mile route from Rockland to Charleston goes like this: Rt. 1N to Rts. 137 to 7 to 143 to 43 to 11. You must understand that my father was terrible with directions. It’s a wonder he ever found his way up there. 

The end of the directions say: “If you reach Sprague Rd. you’ve gone about 1.0 miles too far.” How Maine do those directions sound?

Here’s Sally’s second story:

“This is a more recent snowstorm story and I say this with a grain of salt. While visiting son, Chris, just before Christmas two years ago in Seattle they had a “snowstorm.” They got about 6 inches. Totally closed the entire city and airport and we were stranded at a hotel near the airport. Restaurants etc. all closed, people wouldn’t go to work. Saw one small pickup with plow the whole time. You would think this is the northwest. Don’t they deal with snow? Apparently not. They just wait for it to go away. I was never so glad to get out of anywhere!”


PS: I made this a special blog because it wouldn't go through the comment section of "Stuck in the Snow." However, I see that it finally made it. This blog is more complete than the comments, however. Enjoy either one.