In the winter when I was a kid, there were more than a few days when we’d be riding on the school bus through the country, then some kid at a bus stop would come running out of the house up to the bus shouting, “No school! No school! It’s snow!”
We’d all cheer, including the teenage bus driver, and the driver would turn the bus around and run the route in reverse, dropping us all off back home.
There wouldn’t be a flake anywhere in sight, but if any school official had spotted one or even heard of one in our 707-square-mile county, school was out for the day, and the kids still at home would hear it on the radio – and as the saying went, if the school buses had run, that counted as a school day.
These days, school is cancelled at a similar pace, but with a whole lot more procedure and rules and red tape as far as letting the parents and kids know (as well as having adults instead of high-schoolers driving our buses).
The community wasn’t so quick to back off school and work in past generations, though. Our grandparents and great-grandparents were a hardier bunch who continued to go to work, school, shopping and even the theater in the snow.
I’ve learned that during my regular practice of reading a great many old newspaper articles covering the past 105 years. Articles I’ve read showed how life continued despite snow, so I have the general idea of that, and here below is information from notes I’ve taken from some of those articles.
People were so intent on going about their routines, in fact, a Martinsville ordinance that took effect in 1915 required all property owners to have the sidewalk or walkway fronting their properties cleared of snow within 6 hours of the snowfall. The fine for not doing so ranged from $1 to $5 ($31 to $156 in today’s dollars).
The Jan. 14, 1921, Henry Bulletin had an ad for Banner Warehouse, which stated that “owing to the snow and bad weather for handling tobaccos, our sales have not been large this week, yet we had fairly good sales each day … We have a full corpse of buyer and the bidding is more spirited and the outlook is good for continued active market.”
The five inches of snow which covered the ground on Jan. 10, 1927, only impeded traffic in town “somewhat, but bus lines continued to maintain scheduled times,” the Jan. 11, 1927, Henry Bulletin stated.
The first snowfall of 1929 occurred on Feb. 5. The Henry Bulletin on Feb. 8 noted that the 4 inches of “frosted liquid” did not seem to hamper traffic at all, and the bus and train schedules ran “almost on their usual time.”
The City of Martinsville bought its first snow plow in 1936 and put it to the test on an 11-inch snowfall on Feb. 7, 1936, the Martinsville Bulletin of that date reported. Also on the job of removing show were “Four gangs of shovelmen, many from the relief rolls … shovelling snow into trucks to be hauled away and dumped on the outskirts of the city.”
A snow storm March 4-5, 1932, wreaked so much havoc in the area that “Garage concerns reaped a harvest during the two-day episode in towing crippled machines, as well as disposing of a large stock of tire chains and radiator alcohol, left on hand as a result of the mild winter,” the March 8, 1932, Martinsville Bulletin reported. That snow was heavy enough to have all city schools closed. However, county schools in “the larger and more accessible communities” probably remained in session, Henry County School Superintendent J.F. Hollifield told the newspaper. He had received phone calls from “several teachers from smaller schools” telling him that “they could not reach their posts.” The rural mail carriers headed out from the post office with mail to get as far as they could on their routes.
In the 1940s, people depended on public bus routes for transportation, and those buses ran even in the snow. A report on Feb. 21, 1947, stated that snow and sleet prevented Greyhound buses from arriving, but buses going from Martinsville to Danville, Stuart, Bassett and Chatham were still in operation.
On March 13, 1947, a major snowstorm had hit the area, but that did not stop hundreds of people from attending the Barter Theatre’s production of “State of the Union, which was sponsored by the Bassett Rotary Club and held at the Bassett High School auditorium.
And it was a white Christmas in 1947, with snow falling, but the snow did not stop the Pythians, their volunteers and more than 1,000 youngsters and elderly folks from attending the Knights of Pythias’ Christmas tree celebration on the lawn of Courthouse Square.
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Church Street Extension was barricaded closed to traffic to allow children to go down the sloped street sleighing. Employees of the Recreation Department supervised the children, and a bonfire in an oil barrel was kept going to keep them warm.
Even as late as 1996, Martinsville City Public Schools developed new snow-day routes for buses.These as-needed routes were just on the main roads, which were expected to be clear of snow, and it was hoped that the students would get themselves to those main roads to be picked up for school.
However, it’s supposed to snow this weekend, and though I love history I’m a modern day woman. I’ll be at home with my phone and computer charged up, plenty of gas in the tank for the propane heater, and lots of water saved in pots in case the power goes out.
My car will stay right where it is in the driveway and not budge until the roads are clear.
