THE WINTER THAT WASN'T

[My Northern Wisconsin]

By:  Sandy Onchuck

Last week, someone described this winter season as “the winter that wasn’t,” after snowplowing for our township for over 30 years; I think this is a perfect description. This year has definitely been way beyond unusual.

……The Winters That Were

During our plowing years, winter's end was always an interesting time for us.  As the snowbanks melted, we never knew what we might find.  Usually, it was damaged mailboxes, busted-up sign posts, damaged lawns, grader parts lost while plowing, and a host of other issues.  But a smashed-up car?  And the humorous part of this story is that no one realized this until the spring thaw.

It was the spring of 1998, and as the snow began to melt and as the crocuses started peeking through the snow, we were shocked, to say the least, to see Grandpa Onchuck’s old Citation peeking through the snow bank, emerging from the mounds of snow, all smashed to smithereens.

Even though the old girl was a “beater” and had seen better days, she still had some life left, and Grandpa still used her when driving back and forth to his son's farm to help with the chores.

He had bought a newer car and that winter was allowing the Citation to hibernate.  Not foreseeing the enormous amount of snow that winter would bring, pappy had parked it too close to the snowplow turnaround.  So out of sight - out of mind, the grader operator, (this time not Dennis), had forgotten it was there.  As the winter snow began building up, the snowbanks increased.  The plowman, thinking he was pushing the snowbank back, was actually climbing up on top of the car.  The grader’s engine noise muffled the sound of crushing metal and breaking glass.

   

Even though the old girl ended up "Off the Road," Dennis, the "King of Surgical Transplanting," managed to salvage the starter, heater, motor, headlights, tires, and just about everything else he could disassemble to donate to other vehicles.  Thus, she became a "vehicle" donor who gave life to other cars before she went to that great "junkyard on Earth."

Sadly, Grandpa passed away the following winter, but we still have the pictures and memories that continue to bring us smiles and laughter.

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