The biggest storm I remember was in March of 1957, when it snowed for four straight days. We lost electricity and phones the first night and since nearly everyone in our neighborhood had electric baseboard heat or oil heat with electric starters, electric stoves and well pumps, we all ended up at one neighbor s house who had coal heat and a wood burning stove in their basement. There were about 30 of us squished in there, one being a 2 year old with the measles. The 2nd day, the men had to dig tunnels to some of the houses to get food from them to feed all of us and the older kids had to keep going out to get snow to melt in pots on the stove and use to flush the toilet, do dishes, etc.

The 4th day, we got the phone service back. The 5th day, we called my uncle in the town and their electric had just gone on so our family walked 5 miles to his house, with me carrying my doll suitcase filled with steaks from the freezer. We returned home after about 2 more days and started to dig out. No school for 10 days and that was back when they hardly ever cancelled school for weather.