Winter wonderland

Electricity absented itself from my home around 11 p.m. Christmas night. Power returned about 15 hours later.

Our all-electric house has good insulation, so Priscilla, Michael, Kathleen and I were not cold. Five inches of snow on the roof might have helped, but I am not too much informed on the R factor of snow.
The house has a fireplace insert. We packed it with wood cut and split from last year’s wind that knocked down several trees. The wood was well-seasoned (meaning dry) and burned nicely.

I thought we would breakfast on cold cereal and milk, but Priscilla reminded me of the propane grill. I then remembered the grill has a separate burner. Bacon and eggs cooked in a cast iron skillet in 25-degree weather … is not any better than that cooked inside in a 68-degree kitchen.

Having power back is good.

In 1961, Northeast Texas had a big ice storm. I was 15. Six years earlier, my parents rented a house and five acres just north of Rocky Branch, Texas. Rocky Branch “is a populated place located in Morris County at latitude 33.112 and longitude -94.698. The elevation is 348 feet.” So says hometownlocater.com.

Texas State Historical Association has a bit more. “Rocky Branch is on U.S. Highway 259 five miles northeast of Daingerfield in east central Morris County. It was named for the site of a sawmill and gristmill established in the late 1870s. A post office opened in 1890 and remained in operation until 1904. In 1896 the community had a population of fifty. By 1915 it had a population of 100, the sawmill operated by Nat Wright, and a general store operated by J. P. Forsyth. By the 1930s the population had declined to fifty and the businesses to two. From 1974 through 1986 the population of Rocky Branch was reported as 120. The community had two churches and a community center but no businesses. Nearby was the Primitive Baptist Church of Christ, which was organized in April 1854. The church obtained a building that year that was used as a meetinghouse and school and was still in use as a church in 1989. In 1990 the population of Rocky Branch was 135. The population remained the same in 2000.”

Rocky Branch was at a fork in the road, U.S. Highway 59 leading northwest to Omaha, and State Highway 338 going northeast to Naples.

The winter storm of 1961 encased everything in ice. Ice covered the ground, the roof of our house, the cars, limbs and trees.

The morning of the first day of the storm, my father decided he, my brother Bill and I should look at ice in the woods west of the house. My mother told us to dress warm. Bill and I both put on two T-shirts, two flannel shirts two pairs of jeans, two pairs of socks and some kind of scarf for our heads and ears. My father did the same, except he had a hat and did not wear a scarf.

That day was the coldest I had ever witnessed. Ice on the ground crunched underfoot. Daddy broke ice from the barbed wire gate in order to get the gate open.

When we got to the top of the small rise just south of the barn, the view was amazing. Trees had become ice sculpture, every red oak and pin oak and white oak encased in an inch-thick clear coating. Pine trees bowed under the weight of ice.

We walked along the two-rutted path into the woods. Now and then a loud “CRRAACK!” sounded from far inside the trees.

“What’s that?” I asked at the first sound.

“Limbs breaking,” Daddy said. “The ice is too heavy for the limbs to bear.”

I thought, Wow! Ice that breaks limbs.

There have been many storms since then – ice storms and snow storms, thunderstorms and heavy rain. But none had the originality, the sense of wonder of that first ice storm.

The storm was cold, it was deadly, and it cared nothing for people or cattle or trees. It was nature.