By Willie Mine Midgett Never having been there, I had always dreamed of how beautiful Alaska must be with all the ice and snow around the North Pole. When the 1951 blizzard came, I felt as if I had gotten a bird's eye view of Alaska. Having grown up in those gentler times with old-fashioned methods of survival, no indoor plumbing, water was heated atop a wood-burning stove, it was certainly great to be introduced to electricity. Electricity would replace the woodstove and outdoor woodpile. Our family had just gotten a new electric cookstove. My, it was certainly great to be able to pull one cord and light up the whole room after having used kerosene lamps. Then, boom, all of a sudden on Wednesday night, January 31, 1951, one ice blizzard put our magic fairyland of electricity out of business for over a week. It seemed like the lights were going out all over the world. Back we go to the woodburning cookstove and back to using the kerosene lamps. On the last afternoon of January there was a sudden onslaught of cold, sleet, snow, and ice that struck the entire area. This is no casual drizzle, no temperate storm nor even a settled downpour. This ice is a deluge the proportions of which one would not think the sky capable. I was on my way home from work and witnessed the whole thing. It started with an ice storm, a rain of sleet that broke tree and limbs and electric wires. Following the sleet and ice came about eight inches of snow, the weight of which brought down tree after tree and power line after power line leaving a complete blackout. During the time of the ice blizzard our family lived where Gifford Place now stands. My sister and her husband, who had just moved into a new all-electric home just down the road, returned home because with a new baby they needed a place with heat. Just across the road Mr. Herman McNeill owned and operated a small market. His store was arranged with an overhang porch on the front under which my brother-in-law parked his brand new Ford automobile. We went back to the kerosene lamps and the pot-bellied stove. With trees breaking and falling, we were all frightened. I was sitting on the couch with the baby lying beside me. Suddenly, I heard an unusually loud noise and thought a tree was falling on the house, so I jumped and ran and forgot the baby! Luckily, a tree did not fall on the house. But... After a sleepless dark and fearful night with temperatures falling down to -15 degrees, dawn finally came and we discovered what had made the crashing sounds. The porch roof at Mr. McNeill's store had fallen in under the weight of the snow and crushed my sister's new car. These were trying times but they were not without excitement also. It was reported that a young man from Joelton drove his car across the frozen ice-covered Cumberland River. The ice and snow was a beautiful sight beyond comprehension. No one was traveling the roads. They were almost impassable and traffic was virtually paralyzed. However, being in my mid-20's at that time and much braver than I now am, when a friend came along and asked if I would go to Nashville with him to get supplies his family needed, I immediately agreed. The Devils Elbow was a sight to behold. Only once did we slide from the road, but with a push and shove, we were back on our way for an enjoyable sightseeing trip. I cannot imagine trying that today. During post-war days, it was unheard of for the World War II generation and many of those who went through the Depression to actually have more than they needed, but everyone was always ready and willing to share or to help each other in times like the ice blizzard. My family had canned food from the garden and we raised hogs for meat so we could survive. With all of the modern and expensive conveniences today, those of us dependent on electricity, gas, and oil may not be as well equipped for cold weather as our forefathers were. In earlier times, if a family had canned vegetables, a smokehouse with meat in it and corn in the crib, a saw to cut a tree for wood and an axe to chop the wood for the pot-bellied stove and fireplace, they didn't have too much to worry about. Our pot-bellied heating stove long ago went by the wayside, but still in my possession is the cross-cut saw as well as the chopping axe used by our family and at my delicate age with bones cooperating I still remember well how to use them.

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