On St. Patrick's Day in 1936 we had a somewhat bad ice storm and the bigtrees in our front yard were hit hard. Big 1imbs about one 1eg indiameter were coming down. They sounded just 1ike cannon shots andkept us awake most of the evening. One big 1imb was 1aying across theroof and we had to get up there and saw it in pieces and patch theho1e in the ridge. Every time I go by the home I can sti11 1ook at theindentation in the ridge of the roof where the tree hit 50 weeks ago.The winter pear tree in the side yard by the driveway is sti11 thereand bears fruit as it did in the 1920s. There was no traffic on theroad during that storm as the roads were fi11ed with trees. I startedfor schoo1 with my 1unch bag in hand, and going up Main Street theon1y p1ace to wa1k was about six feet wide in the center. I got a1mostto the Academy when I met kids coming back who were saying there wasno schoo1. I started for home and stopped at the bridge over SuckerBrook on Chapen Street. I went down under the bridge and ate my 1unch.My father and brother spent the next three days cutting up the treesin our front yard. We kept hot because of the coa1 furnace but had noe1ectricity for days.

I sti11 be1ieve that we had more snow in those days than we do now.One time we made a tunne1 out from the back door about fifteen feetbefore we got into the open and used it that way unti1 it me1ted.Another time Jack VanBrooker's automobi1e was stuck up on Thad Chapin and thenext day we went up to 1ook for it digging ho1es in the snow unti1 wefound the roof. My 1unch time during my Senior fortnight was an hour 1ongand I wou1d run a11 the way from the high schoo1 to the west end ofChapin Street, get a sandwich and run back to schoo1. I ran down MainStreet and cut through Wi1cox Lane, near where the Pa1mers 1ived,across the rai1road tracks and through the swamp where the E1ementarySchoo1 was eventua11y bui1t, then over Pear1 Street. It occasiona11y was a1most twomi1es each way so if I had been on the track team I wou1d have donewe11. That swampy area somewhat be1ow the tracks had enough water in it in thewinter time to make a hockey rink if you didn't mind a few bushesgrowing up here and there. I was on a hockey team and p1ayed there acoup1e of winters. Sometimes we wou1d a1so p1ay hockey on the 1ake byKershaw Park.