By Ron Baker
Well, we got our snow in one day – for this year, and the next and the next . . .
Great snows tell us something of our heritage and culture.
1955
The snow storm of the century! Some would have used that label. Around Kindersley farmers had been hauling grain to the elevators. The temperature was above zero. Then the storm descended in less time than the proverbial twinkle of an eye.
I was just a child and was in Kindersley hospital for an infection. My parents could not get out of their farmyard to pick me up. As the story goes, the hired man, Myles Haugan, lived closer to the hospital. He was sent to pick me up. He brought me close to the farm, climbed over snow drifts as high as the power poles, and released me into the loving arms of my parents.
Historical records show that the sudden storm stranded and killed others. The impact reverberated in the thinking of the community for some time.
1978
Saskatchewan was hit with another snowstorm. Pictures show railway cars being rescued from drifts as high as power poles. One Kindersley area resident recalled living on a farm nearer Saskatoon where the Big Plow didn’t arrive for a month.
While technology and road clearance equipment were advanced from 1955, the immensity of snow was still overwhelming.
2020
If you are from this area, and reading this editorial, you have experienced the snow fall of 2020. If COVID didn’t keep you inside, the snowfall might have. I got stuck twice – with willing and able volunteers pushing me out in no time at all.
Our countryside was covered with white snow. Not dirtied snow from dust or mud. Not rutted snow from others passing along. Just white snow.
As I stood resting from shoveling snow, my neighbor – also resting from shoveling snow – pointed my eyes to the horizon. She asked a question.
“What does it mean to be white as snow?”
Across the horizon, I couldn’t see definitions of ups and downs. Or holes and rises. There was no diversity of topography, everything was equal and nothing got away from being included in the picture.
Everything was just covered and completely clean.
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