The Upper Peninsula of Michigan hosts the snowiest places in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains (aside from the summit of Mt. Washington) thanks to persistent snow squalls blowing off Lake Superior and unloading their precipitation over the hills of the Keweenaw Peninsula and the Huron Mountains west of Marquette. Herman takes top honors with an average of 236” of snow each winter season (Mt. Washington averages 310”).
Ward loved snow; and he loved shoveling snow his entire life -- he always had perfectly shoveled driveways and sidewalks. Nancy (me) was born in the middle of a snowstorm. Margaret was sent to the hospital in Marquette 3 days early to make sure she was there when I was born. They talked of not being able to see people walking on the sidewalks when they took me home from the hospital because of the height of the snow piles next to the street. Notice the snow shovel Ward is using. The first patent for a lighter, plastic snow shovel was granted in 1939 to a Robert A. Smith.
When I was a little girl, as soon as it began to snow, the plows in Negaunee would be out plowing. When we moved to St. Paul, we were in for quite a surprise. St. Paul waited until it quit snowing -- and then only the "snow routes" were plowed; some of the side streets in the city were never plowed -- people who had cars drove in the ruts. We didn't have a car; we rode the streetcar wherever we went that was more than 6 blocks. The grocery store was 2 blocks away; the school and the library were three blocks away and church was 4 blocks away. There was a variety store, another grocery store and a meat market 3 blocks in another direction. Everything we needed was within walking distance, unless we went "downtown" or to Montgomery Wards and that was a long ways away for a little girl. Both Ward and Margaret took the streetcar to work.
So many memories of a far different time.....
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