The Snowdrift and our GTO

For most of the day today here in Michigan it rained.

However later in the afternoon it changed over to snow.

It was blowing so hard that it reminded of something that happened

to our family in the Winter of 1970.

I was 12 at the time of this story.

This particular weekend, we were going to spend Friday night with my gramma B

 Saturday night with gramma H.

Instead of the family car, my dad decided to drive the Pontiac GTO.

Not sure why he would want to take a sports car in the middle of Winter

on dirt roads that get very snowy, but he did.

It was late Saturday afternoon, and it had been snowing most of the day.

We had had already spent the night at gramma B's farmhouse.

My dad kept watching it snow all day waiting for it to stop

so that we could drive to my gramma H's house.

Finally had stopped snowing just as the sun set.

I remember my parents getting into a mini spat because my mom

wanted to wait until morning to go over to my other gramma's house...

 dad insisted that he was driving over there that night....

after all it had stopped snowing.

It was about a 20 minute drive to my gramma H's house.

I was more afraid of going over the two plank bridge in all of that snow...

but that bridge is another story....

Now usually my dad drove the back roads to get to my gramma's house.

In Winter he played it safe and stayed onto

as many of the paved highways that he could.

Another reason I wondered why dad took the GTO?

  

Well we were 1/2 mile from my gramma's...

and there it was.

This huge snowdrift in the middle of the road up ahead.

My dad stopped and got out of the car to assess the situation.

When he got back into the car, he told my mom he could get through it.

Now mind you, not only was I in the car along with my parents, but there also was

my sister (7), my brother (4) and our family dog Blackie. 

So my dad puts the car in reverse for about 500 feet or so...

and he stops.

He tells us kids to hang on...

don't know what we were suppose to hang on to?

But I grabbed Blackie and hung on to him.

All of a sudden, my dad floors the car

and we start going through this snowdrift

like a snow grater with its blade down would.

There was snow flying on each side of the car

Snow in the front.

Snow in the back.

There was snow everywhere.

It was actually pretty cool...

all except for my mom yelling at my dad to STOP!!!

At the time, I did not know how far my dad tried to drive through 

that snowdrift...

But he gave up and stopped..

and we were stuck in the snow....and we had to walk the rest of the way.

My dad carried my sister through the snow.

My mom carried my brother.

I carried the dog.

Needless to say, my gramma was quite shocked to see

us coming into the house as we all looked like snow folks ourselves from walking

in the blowing snow. Even Blackie looked white.

Being out in the boonies, my dad was not worried about the car
and it was left in the snowdrift until morning

Dad would call his classmate who owned the tow truck business

in town to get the car out then.

When daylight came, we bundled up once more,

and walked back to the car to wait for the tow truck.

Ironically, my dad only had 2 more feet to go

and he would have made it through that snowdrift.

Can you believe it?

My dad and his classmate Tom decided it was best to shovel a 2 ft path 

so my dad could drive back to my grammas, then to pull the car out the other way.

Once the car was dug out, we drove back to my grammas laughing

how my dad almost made it through a snowdrift driving a GTO...

I liked it cause we were stuck at my grammas farmhouse for 4 more days...

until the real road grater and not a GTO plowed the road.
Plus I got out of school. LOL

Take care everyone...

and try to stay out of snowdrifts if you can!

Janice