6.. Snowstorm of 1937-1938

Neil Vanderburg: Okay, you go out Highway 20, and you go down past that golf course and then you go up a little hill on the left, and that's where Mr. Folk lived when he died. Anyway, so it was "Folk" rather than "Polk" that he was talking about. But anyway, he wasn't farming this when I was there. Not up by the school, because I know that Mr. Smith had a bunch of sheep in there.

Bob Zybach: So Smith was running sheep in that area?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, on that hill.

Bob Zybach: There is an orchard right around the school house there. Do you remember anything about that orchard?

Neil Vanderburg: No, I don't.

Bob Zybach: Do you ever remember the name Berry Creek, or Berry Creek School -- I mean Savage Creek, or Savage Creek School?

Neil Vanderburg: I just remember hearing it.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember what about it?

Neil Vanderburg: Not a thing. I didn't know it was in our area. I thought it was over on Soap Creek side.

Bob Zybach: On Soap Creek side they called it the Savage Creek. On your side. Okay, up against. . . on the other side where you called the "Cootes" rather than "Coonte's", there is in old mill site in there and there is some houses where the people that worked in that mill lived. Was that mill closed down by the time you

Neil Vanderburg: Mill was closed down but us kids played in it all the time.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember anything about that mill?

Neil Vanderburg: Well, I can remember one thing about it. All these workers' cabins, their outhouses were built over the creek so they didn't have to dig holes for them.

Bob Zybach: Wow. They weren't so worried about pollution in those days.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah. We would go from the school, and this was all clear fields over here, and there as a great big barn across from the school, it was put together with pegs. Wooden pegs.

Bob Zybach: A real old barn, then?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah. And it withstood that 3 foot of snow we had in '36.

6. Snowstorm of 1937-1938

Bob Zybach: Oh, it was the '36 snow? I've heard '37, but it was a 1936 snow?

Neil Vanderburg: Might have been '37 [According to Eugene Glender, the snowstorm began on January 1, 1937 and continued for 2 or 3 weeks], but it was while we lived there. And we had three feet of snow there and we'd like to have never have got that Diamond T bus started after that snow.

Bob Zybach: How long did that snow stay on the ground?

Neil Vanderburg: I don't know, but I know we didn't get that bus started for over a week. 'Cause it just had a 6 volt battery in it, and old Mr. Dorsey he carried a battery in on his shoulder from over there toward Airlie someplace as far as he could get with his car. Of course there wasn't any such thing as pickups in those days. And he carried that on his shoulder. And then he took all the spark plugs out and put them on the heater to try and warm them up. And he ended up, he carried two batteries in there before we finally got it started; course no electricity, no battery charger. And he couldn't get