| It was just before
Easter in 1945. We left Ekalaka at 10:30 a.m. The sun was shining
brightly and it was 10 below. In the group were myself, my mother
Eva Lantis, an aunt, Mrs. Edna Collins, cousin De Estin, and a
friend, George T. Kittleman.
We were in a one-half ton 1941
Chevy pickup. We had just stocked up on groceries and the back end
was full and tarped over.
We were on our way back to the
ranch, 35 miles west of Ekalaka. Also traveling along with us in
another pickup were Johnny Johnston and his mother. There was a
slight breeze blowing across and about a foot of snow on the
ground.
We were about 10 miles out of
Ekalaka when the wind picked up and we were in a full-fledged
ground blizzard.
The Johnston pickup froze up and
had to be abandoned.
All of us took turns shoveling to
keep the road open and we took to the ridges. We finally were
stuck hard and fast in a snow drift.
We shoveled out and the wind let
up long enough for us to spot a windmill in the distance and we
headed that way.
It was the Eddy Elmore place and
their plight was almost as bad as ours. He and his wife and two
small children were almost out of groceries and were almost out of
wood.
We took our groceries into the
house and George and I chopped up corral posts for fire wood. The
women fixed a big supper of fried bacon, biscuits and gravy and we
hung a blanket over the door to keep the renewed storm from
blowing snow through the keyhole.
We stayed up all night keeping
the fire going and the blizzard raged on.
At dawn, the storm eased and it
was 35 below. We had breakfast and took a team and sled to get
Johnston's pickup. It was a little milder after we crossed the
Powder River Divide and we had no further trouble getting to our
ranch where we stayed until spring.
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