About the diary writer
- Barbara McDowell Whitt
- Kansas City, Missouri, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
- ~ About: A 1961-65 Park College Diary ~ As a high school girl and then a college coed in the first half of the 1960s, I wrote nightly entries on the pages of one-year diaries. In January 2010 I began transcribing the entries into a blog and gave each one a title. I grew up on three farms within 30 miles of Iowa City and the University of Iowa with its Iowa Writers' Workshop. As the oldest of four daughters, in my diaries I sometimes referred to my sisters as "the kids" or "the girls." We helped our parents, but we also had good, wholesome fun - a characteristic I took with me to Park. Park is 300 miles southwest of West Chester, Iowa, in Parkville, Missouri, on the Missouri River 10 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, and across the river from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2000 Park College became Park University. Today Park's flagship campus is in Parkville and there are an additional 41 campus centers across the nation. Park was one of the first educational institutions in the United States to offer online learning. My last post was on May 22, 2018. I may be followed on Twitter @BarbaraMcDWhitt.
A Bad Midwest Snow Storm - Wednesday, February 10, 1960
There was no school today and there won't be any the rest of the week. Our blizzard was called a "midwest storm that closed literally all southern Iowa schools and made roads impossible." Mr. Colliver said it is "the worst since I've been in Iowa." Chick said, "the worst since I've been farming." The weatherman said, "It is one of the worst the Midwest ever had." Yesterday and last night the barometric pressure was the lowest the U.S. Weather Bureau has on record.
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4 comments:
Barb,
This is so great! It is exactly 50 years ago and winter storms here just past yesterday. Just when we think the weather is getting worse, we see that 50 years ago it was awful! I am loving your blog entries. Thanks for doing it!
Yes, Ron, it was fascinating to me, too, that Iowa was getting that much snow then. It reminded me of how deep the piled up snow used to be. This winter seems to be giving the winter of 1960 a run for its money.
I'm enjoying these entries. It's interesting to think about how farming carries on despite the weather or illness. It's neat too to think about how snow in the winter can mean not getting out for days sometimes.
Yes, winter packed a wallop that time--and there were still chores, always.
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