Considering how infrequently it snowed and how relatively mild those snows were while I was growing up in far western Kentucky in the 1960s and early ’70s, the other kids in the neighborhood and I have great and numerous memories of those days!
An army of kids toting sleds, saucers, and anything else that would slide would gather at the top of our hill on Ramona Drive East in Conrad Heights, originally west of Paducah, but eventually annexed into the city. There were two or three other hills legend had it were pretty darned good… but, we who knew (even if we’d never been to the other ones) knew that our hill was the best!
Often as night began to fall, an adult would light and keep watch over a fire on the hilltop, so we could keep sliding unperturbed, to our hearts’ delight.
My mom, as much a kid as anyone outside on a sled, would make “snowcream” with milk, sugar, and vanilla. My sisters, a couple of friends, and I would run inside through the back door, take off our boots and leave them next to the heat register, throw our coats and gloves on the nearest chair, and indulge in what seemed to be nature’s finest frozen “food” with the loving assistance of a mom who knew how to have fun!
In so many ways, our lives in those days were completely carefree! … Except for that one time the superintendent announced school would open the next day and we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was wrong! …So, as the dump trucks scattered cinders on the streets of our neighborhood, we joined together to pack snow right back on the trail as soon as the truck passed. … It really didn’t seem to be doing much good … after all, it was only one street of many… and there still was snowcream back at the house… and some pretty good game shows were about to come on TV… If it weren’t for all that, you would have read about the “Great Street Cleaning Counteroffensive of 1973” in the Paducah Sun, but … sometimes these things just don’t work out…
As history has recorded, far western Kentucky and surrounding states finally did endure, by comparison, what seemed like tons of snow (Eastern Kentuckians still might have scoffed!) in the late 1970s, just in time for me to start driving!
As a senior in high school and in my first year working at WPAD/WDDJ radio, I drove my 12-year-old red-and-white Opel Cadet down North Eighth Street in Paducah, sliding from side to side like a pinball. We just had signed off the air at 2 a.m. Suddenly, I saw blue lights flashing in my rear window. I opened the driver’s side window and hollered to the policeman a couple of car lengths back that I was doing the best I could, the heater wasn’t working, and the windshield was icing up from the inside. He responded, “Okay, I just thought you were a drunk or something...” And, we parted ways. … it was cold and slick and that cop might have had snowcream waiting at home… and it was a different time … and maybe that different time is why it all was so special!
Question of the Day
What memories do you have of snow days home from school?