One of my greatest past times is watching the weather change. I enjoy living in this part of the country because we have 4 seasons. However, I am not so fond of the extreme cold temperatures and wind chills this time of year brings. As a matter of fact, it reminds me of the time I was caught out in the elements without the proper cold weather gear.
It was a sunny Saturday morning in December sometime in the early 80’s. I had just hung up the phone with my friend after making plans for that evening. I could hear the weather guy interrupting The Road Runner and Bugs Bunny show my brothers were watching to warn everyone of a blizzard that would hit our area later that evening. The blizzard was supposed to bring over 12 inches of snow along with air temps and wind chills so it felt like 30 below. I remember looking out the window and thought, no way. It’s beautiful outside.
My friend came to pick me up just like we planned. She was allowed to take her Dad’s car as long as we stayed in town. We had planned to “cruise Main” which meant driving up and down the same road for hours turning around in the bank parking lot. As I left the house, my Mother warned me not to leave town that the weather was going to get worse and colder. As I jumped in the car, I yelled back that we were going to stay in town. I slammed the passenger car door and we were off.
It started to snow a little harder while we were cruising main. We laughed at the weather man and his warnings of a blizzard. It wasn’t bad out at all. He obviously had no idea what he was talking about. We quickly got bored and decided we were going to drive to Fordville which was roughly 22 miles away to the south of Park River, ND. We decided we had better take the backroads so my friend’s Dad or his friend’s would not see us leaving town.
As we left town, the snow intensified and so did the wind. That didn’t stop us though, we were determined and bored. We headed straight south out of town and drove for roughly 8 miles. We came to the end of that road and needed to turn either left or right. We turned right and ran into large snow drifts over the road. My friend sped up so we could make it through them without getting stuck. There was one particularly large drift coming up, we could not see the other side of this drift. The car sped up, gracefully floated on top of the drift and then dropped straight down. The car immediately turned off. It was buried up to the windows in a giant snow drift! My friend tried to turn the car back on but it was dead. We rolled down the windows and crawled out. Both of us stood on top of the snow drift and looked around. We were in the middle of the country, it was dark and snowing along with the wind that was blowing hard. In the distance, we could see a farm light, there was one in the same direction we were headed and another behind us. They both seemed to be the same distance from us and they didn’t seem that far away. We argued as to which way to go and decided to continue on in the same direction we were headed. We stayed together and began walking on top of the snow. It was hard to tell where the road was. Neither of us were dressed to walk any distance in a blizzard with 30 below wind chill. We didn’t have hats, mittens, boots or proper coats. It was strange to realize the longer we walked the warmer we got. Our coats were unzipped as we warmed up and there were times we had to sit down and rest. It was exhausting. That farm light seemed like it kept moving farther away the longer we walked.
After walking for what seemed like forever, we finally reached the light! I was never so happy to see a farmhouse. It was a rambler style house and there were lights on! The front door was unlocked, we let ourselves in without knocking. I am certain we scared the man who lived there half to death. He was sitting in his living room watching the news. At the same time, we both began telling him what happened. The heat in the house actually hurt my entire body. I stopped talking and let my friend continue with our story. I sat down on the floor next to the heater and closed my eyes. The next time I opened them I was surprised to see paramedics who were asking me questions but I could not find my voice. My entire body was in pain. I closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes again I found myself in a brightly lit room and I could hear my parents yelling at each other. I learned I was in the emergency room back in my hometown and I had frostbite. I did not want to have to answer any parental questions so I just laid there until the doctor came in. My ears were severely frostbitten. There was concern of infection so I would need to be on antibiotics. The tips of my finger and toes also had a touch of frostbite.
I don’t remember how I got home but found myself in my bed the next morning. My ears were on fire when I woke up! I looked at myself in the mirror and my ears were swollen and HUGE! They had large ugly blisters on them.
My ears, fingers and toes did heal fully, however, they are very sensitive to the cold weather. I learned later that we walked 3 miles to that light in the distance. The other light we saw was only a light with a grain bin. There was no farmhouse and no source of heat in that location. The car we drove had to be towed and put in a heated garage to melt all of the snow and ice packed in the engine. I still don’t know who that man was that I am sure we scared half to death barging into his home half frozen. I almost forgot to mention, that road we were driving on was a road that was closed for the winter.
When I think about this experience, I am overwhelmed with the realization of God’s guidance and protection in the midst of my terrible decisions. I did not know God at this time in my life but he was there with me, guiding me through the circumstances I put myself in.
Psalm 17:8
Keep me [in Your affectionate care, protect me]
as the apple of Your eye;
Hide me in the [protective]
shadow of Your wings
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