Return to TFB Main Page
Return to Current Edition
Texas Agriculture Archive

March 7, 2003

"This has been a purdy nasty ice storm, but cain't hold a candle to the one in December, 1983," Mel said, assessing the recent icy spell that hit North-Central Texas. "Now, that'un wuz a real lahlapaloozer, prob'ly the worst in our lifetime."

I recalled the 10 days below 10 degrees and shivered.

"At least in my lifetime," I said. "The National Weather Service said that series of cold waves, Dec. 18-30, set a record 295 consecutive hours below freezing and $50-100 million damage statewide. There was another one in January 1949, 10 months before I was born, that was bad. In Fort Worth, they had 72 hours of below freezing temperatures coupled with freezing rain, which made it one of the most damaging ice storms on record. And to top it off, they got 3 inches of snow and more record cold weather two weeks later."

"How'd you know all that?"

"Read it on the National Weather Service homepage. They have a lot of data posted that tells about significant weather events over the years."

"I know one thang, that freeze in '83 wuz a doozy. Ah'll never forget...the pond wuz nurly froze solid...ever' day, me'n Eric wud have to punch a hole futher out in the water. One mornin', we wuz a purdy good ways out toward the middle punchin' an' happened to look up... here come about a hunnerd head of cattle on the ice right out with us. We cud jist see ourselves an' all 'em cows fallin' through that ice into the lake. We didn't want to skeer 'em 'cause we wuz afraid they might fall down an' break sump'n, so we vury calmly backed those cows off that ice 'til we wuz all safe."

"Guess that taught you a lesson."

"Yep, don't git too friendly with your cows," Mel chuckled. "They wuz totally dependent on us fer water and feed all 'at time. They follered us aroun' like puppy dawgs.

"You know, thur wuz jist one well open in the country, and that wuz at our barn, and we left the gate open cause everybody was comin' to git water. We'd start thur in the mornin'—we had that 20 foot round tank at the well—an' we'd take bars and axes and cut the ice out so the cows'd have fresh water. It'd freeze 10 inches thick ever' night. We had a pile of ice when all that was over that wudda filled up a box car.

"Good thang you wuz in Taos with yer daddy," my husband continued. "You'd a throwed a hissy fit if you'd been home. Co-op water wuz froze up. Cudn't take a bath, er flush potties, er warsh clothes. Kitchen sink wuz full o' dirty dishes...Central heat an' fahrplace wuz runnin' full blast, an' we still cudn't git it above 60 in the house. Got a seben hunnerd and some odd dollar light bill an' never got warm. Me'n Eric'd work all day, crawl up in the bed with our clothes on, an' git up the next mornin' an' start over agin. I'm sure we looked an' smelled like a coupla woolly boogers. I remember thankin' God ever' night fer 'lectric blankets an' refrigerators."

"I can understand the electric blankets, but why the refrigerator?"

"'Cause," Mel said, "the refrigerator wuz th' only place we could put thangs to keep 'em from freezin'!"