The Blizzard of '75

Headlines from 40 years ago from the Omaha World Herald

Omaha World-Herald

Forty years ago this Saturday, Omaha experienced what is considered its worst blizzard on record. A foot of snow and winds of 60 mph stranded about 10,000 cars on metro area roadways and hundreds of people at their jobs.

Boy, do I remember this blizzard. In 1975 the forecasters didn’t have the tools to predict like today. Woke up that morning to snow and blowing snow and yet school started as usual. Parents were upset but sent their kids. By 9.00 o’clock the conditions had gotten so bad that school was called. Students had only been there a half hour. A lot of students had made to the school and had to turn back. At that time we owned the local bar. Travelers had to exit 1-80 because the highway was blocked by very high drifts. Our small town only has one motel and it filled up fast, as did the three churches and the community hall and school gym. Calls were made to residents that had extra bedrooms. One restaurant and our bar was the only place that served food.  This civic engineer, just back from years in South American, stopped at our place for a bite to eat. He had nowhere to go and hubby was closing up so as to get home before it got worse.  So he brought the fellow with him. That stay lasted 3 days. He was very entertaining with all of his travel stories. We had ping pong set up on the extra kitchen table in the playroom and he was willing to play ping pong with the girls by the hour. His family was in Lincoln Ne. and he worried about them and getting out in the snow and getting lost, not having seen snow before and not knowing its dangers. He was a super house guest. He tried to pay us for his stay and food but we wouldn’t take anything. He traveled 1-80 again around St. Valentine’s and stopped with cute white stuffed dogs with red bows around their necks for each girl. Had those dogs till I sold all my daycare stuff.

It definitely was the snow of the century. School was closed for a week and then opened for students who could make it. A lot of country roads were still impassable. We live on the edge of town with no protection from north winds in the winter. So when school started, the drifts were so high out front, that when school buses went by all we could see was the top of their roofs. Very eerie feeling. A couple of days after the blizzard stopped the town called to see if hubby would open up so that travelers stranded in town would have a place to buy food. Hubby said “Sure, if you come up and dig us out”. We couldn’t get out a door and we had four entrances to this old house at the time (it once was a duplex). So two guys with a tractor came up and dug us out. Boy was I glad. I was full of “What ifs”. No exit made me nervous.

Definitely a blizzard that a lot of us will never forget. Today, forty years later, we have very little snow but the schools in the whole state are closed due to very dangerous wind chills. Right now out my window it is minus 4 with wind chills at minus 35. The high forecast for today is minus 5. Forty years later and another good day to stay in, if you can.

Stay warm.

Rose.

From My Family to Yours-Happy New Year.

In any language the sentiment is the same.

Wishing you and all your family, a  happy, healthy New Year.

God Bless,

Rose

Oplatek- reminds me of my Babcia and my mother.

It is Christmas Eve afternoon. Not wanting to start any project because we are going to leave at 4:15 for Christmas Mass at 5:00, I was just surfing and an article titled, “I’m Sharing Opłatek With All of You” caught my eye. “Oh my gosh” I said out loud. The picture was of someone “breaking off” a piece of oplatek. Oplatek is unleavened bread, similar to what is used for Communion in the Catholic Church. It is the custom in Poland to have breaking of the bread with your family and wishing them health, happiness and success while doing so. As I read the article, memories of Christmas pass came to mind. Babcia (grandma) offering all of us to take a piece of Oplatek as she wished us a Merry Christmas. In later years, after Babcia passed, my mother took over for her. Her house became the family gathering and everyone that entered had to have a piece of Oplatek. It was family tradition. I have some Oplatek, wrapped in Sarah wrap, in a sealed envelope from those days. I think it is time for me to start the tradition up again.  I think I will search the internet for some fresh Oplatek. What family traditions do you remember from your youth? Do you carry them out with your family now?

You can read more on this Polish custom here.

http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/Holidays/xmasindex/xmas-oplat/xmas-oplat.html

https://crazypolishguy.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/im-sharing-oplatek-with-all-of-you/

Merry Christmas,

Rose

Christmas Traditions. Do you have any?

Christmas time. A beautiful time of the year. A time for recalling past Christmas’. But it can also be a hectic. I tend to start early so that I can sit back and relax in front of the tree. Of course, with just the two of us, I don’t do as much baking etc. as I did in the past. Our four daughters have done a great job of taking over that department. They also take turns planning and having the Christmas festivities. We just have to show up. Daughter number 3 posted a picture on Facebook of an angel on her Christmas tree and asked why each of the four girls, their dad and I hung a similar angel on the tree as the last ornament each year.  When the girls were small I was wondering the aisles of the YBR store in our town. It carried anything and everything a person needed from groceries to boots to wear doing farm chores. And old mercantile type store straight out of pioneer days. I spotted a box of small angels, six of them, each different. I loved them and purchased them. A tradition was born. Every year from that Christmas on, each of us would hang our angel on the tree as our last ornament. It was my way of showing the girls the true meaning of Christmas. When the girls got their own homes, I gave each of them an Angle.

Three of the Angles.

 I have always put up a nativity, too. I bought our first Nativity for our first Christmas. At the time, I thought it was a bit pricey but I knew I had to have one or it would not be Christmas.

I still have it. 

Fifty two years old this Christmas.

This is the fifty-second time I have set it up. It is looking a bit worn but it is still very special to me. It reminds me of many Christmas’ past and how many little hands have arranged and re-arranged the pieces. I now own six different nativities and all of them go up every year. 

One more tradition we had was going to Mass on Christmas Eve, stopping after church and buying a bottle of wine, going home and hubby making fudge, the old fashioned kind and me making eggnog. Fun times. Hubby still makes the fudge every Christmas, still using the same old fashioned recipe. But now he makes a lot of batches and divides them among 13 grandkids and four daughters and four sons–in-laws. 

These are some of our traditions from past years. Do you have traditions that have special meaning in your family? Do you still carry them out, maybe in a different way? Fun time.

Enjoy the weeks before Christmas. But remember the reason for the season.

Rose

Thanksgiving and black Friday.

Thanksgiving is four days away. As I was making my oatmeal buns for our family Thanksgiving, I got to thinking about family. This will be the first year ever that the whole family won’t be together. It makes me a bit sad but not a lot. You see, two granddaughters are traveling to the “other side” of their “new” families. One has been married for over a year and the other is getting married in Jan. Exciting times. And that is a good thing, a happy time. There will still be plenty of us together to celebrate and still plenty to be very thankful. And this is the way life is supposed to be.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this brings to mind all the black Friday sales. I do not do theblack Friday scene. I feel it isn’t worth the savings to fight the hassle. This is the black Friday I take part of every year.

Do you take part in the black Friday sales?

Have a good day, stay warm.

Rose

Thanking all of our veterans today, especially two special men in my life, past and present.

Thanking all of our veterans today, especially these two special men in my life, past and present.

John Hascall U.S. Army WW 2

Jerry L. Hascall U.S. Navy 1958-1964

Our family was a family of servers; John Hascall,(Jerry’s dad), all of John’s brothers, and all of John’s sons, Darwin, Wayne, David and Jerry, and now a grandson, Steve Mauer. One of my daughters asked why we didn’t make a big deal out of this over the years. To answer that, this is what I said,

“I don't know. You are right. We definitely should have. I think in years past we as a whole, Americans, just took our freedom for granted. Today, with the world the way it is and after 2011, we know it can change in an instant.” And I hope and pray, we never forget this important lesson.

Thank a veteran today, not just for serving, but for making it possible for something special to be in your life, like your home, your family, safe and happy, ability to worship at the church of your choice, to travel with out fear of road side bombs. The list goes on.

Rose

Who knew? Feathers?

I saw a post on Facebook from a friend on Sweet Autumn Clematis. She was showing how the seeds look liked they grew feathers. So, I decided to go out and look at mine. She was so right. What do you think? Don’t they look like feathers? Who knew?

This is how Sweet Autumn Clematis looked earlier this fall.

           

Look close.

See the "feathers"?

Amazing.

So glad for that Facebook post or I would not have seen the beauty of my Sweet Autumn Clematis this late in the season.  Beauty is all around us in this world. All we have to do is look for it. Lesson learned.

Enjoy the nice fall weather while it lasts.

Rose