It takes all kinds.
Some people are taking a Polar Plunge today out by Choice Fitness. They are freezing for a reason-to help raise money for Special Olympics. Others are going to see Quentin Hooker and the UND team play their last basketball game of the year at the Betty. A whole bunch of people are watching the pucks fly during the state high school hockey tournament with its grand finale tonight at the Ralph.
And I am here to tell you that plenty of UND hockey fans have rolled down Interstate 29 to see the weekend series in Omaha.
Never mind that February is ebbing away. It really should be gone on Sunday, but this is a leap year. And the leap year brings us one day more. That leap day is on Monday so things don't get all messed up on the calendar. I guess Julius Caesar or someone figured that out eons ago when they realized the calendars were cutting out a quarter of a day per year.
So March can wait until Tuesday to makes its debut.
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With all of its promises, March can be sneaky. Mother Nature will be the first to admit that. All you have to do is mention the blizzard of 1966, and anyone who has been around the area a while will shrug.
That blizzard moved in gently on the evening of March 2, 1966, with 2.6 inches of snow. The next day, another 6.8 inches of snow came down, and the temperature climbed to 26 above.
The snow kept coming with 17 inches on March 4, 1966. The city was paralyzed. With a skeleton crew, the Herald kept publishing, though there could be no delivery at the time. The weather was rather mild and children confined at home during the blizzard delighted in climbing to the rooftops of one story houses and plunging into the mounds of snow. That is, until the radio warnings that this was dangerous. You couldn't be sure whether you would land on glass windows.
On March 5, 1966, the snow depth at UND was 27 inches, with 34 inches recorded at Grand Forks Airport.
My memories of the blizzard are vivid. I also have been skimming the book by Douglas Ramsey and Larry Skroch, who skimmed area newspapers of the time.
They also have a book about the blizzard of 1941. It's entitled, "Looking for Candles in the Window." And the late M.A. Johnson in the book about his country stores vividly recalled being out in that blizzard in 1941. It is a reminder that winter is not necessarily over in March.
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This Sunday, there will be a talk about blizzards in the Entertaining History series at the Myra Museum. It's at 2 p.m., and will be presented by Chris Atkinson of the UND geography department.
Phyllis and Jeff
Cheerful Persons of the week: Phyllis "Toots" Wedin and Jeff Dodson.
