Reader response to my look back at 1967 was so strong I’m taking a “snow day!” …

Wegner’s ‘ Big Storm’ baby
On Thursday, the 26th, I was one month overdue for the birth of my son, Tim Wegner.

I went to see Dr. Hickman – went by wrecker from Barnett-Dreisbach Chevrolet.

Irv and Dorothy Russell got a honk out of watching Larry Dodd and my husband, Terry, trying to get me up into the wrecker.

Dr. Hickman said I should go to the hospital so we went through the same procedure (Betty Seaburg watched this time and teased me over the years).

Tim was born on Saturday, Jan. 28.

There were so many employees of the hospital who were unable to leave.

They stayed in unoccupied beds and pitched in to help where they could.

Terry had to walk in the street to visit us at the hospital.

Berenice Vanderburg had a column in the Daily News and had a happy birthday wish for numerous persons in town.

For years, she wished a happy birthday to “The Big Storm” baby, Tim Wegner.

I was not the only who had an interesting ride to the hospital.

Dorothy Juroff Morse came in by way of the National Guard.

Dorothy and I were friends through school and the youth group at First Christian Church, so it was a most interesting time.

– Barb Wegner

Moose only meat in the freezer
Marie Michalke and her husband, Paul, were stuck on M-62 down by the first bridge.

It ended up he carried Marie to our house and we immediately put her in bed.

They stayed the night with us (might have been two nights).

I remember that the only meat I had in the freezer was moose, so that’s what the meal was planned around.

The next day Paul left to see what he could do about getting the car out and Marie spent her morning looking out the front window to see when the road opened up.

I do remember it cost us $30 to have our drive plowed out.

The snow was so deep couldn’t see much over the top of it.

Marie worked in the school administrative office with me.

They gifted my husband, me, our son and daughter with new tops.

Reason they gave was that the kids had to give up their beds.

After that I made sure I had meat in my freezer in case we got more unexpected company.

– Helen Leich

In those pre-Wolverine Building days, the administration office was in the old Central High School, 520 Main St., occupied today by the Donald Lyons Health Center.
Dorothy Ivey taught at Central when her husband, Nathan, was Southwestern Michigan College’s first president.
The Iveys, who recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, live in Texas.

Young people hole up in nursing home
I think there were eight or 10 people snowed in on the SMC campus and my husband had Kenny Clark take his snowmobile and go in and bring each of them to the road after a night of being snowed in.

It was at the end of finals and before the new semester started.

I remember that one of the buses could not deliver a few of the students to their homes and they were near a nursing home, so they spent the night in the nursing home.

The residents there felt so rich to have contact with these young people.

We had a car snowed in on the Central Junior High parking lot, a car covered with snow in front of our house and another one in the garage and we were unable to get it down the drive.

Daughter Judy hung a “red petticoat” on the antenna of the car in the street, so the snow plow could  see it.

Son Jim and some of his friends dug tunnels behind the football stadium bleachers.
Daughter Sara and Jim pulled a sled uptown from our house on Orchard Street and came back with a few groceries.

It was both a frightening experience, but a fond memory in our family. We still talk about it.

– Dorothy L. Ivey

Sidetracked to Flint
I just had to read that you were in fourth grade during the ’67 blizzard – makes me feel old!

Russ (Bergemann) and I were CMU students then and attempted to drive here from there the day it hit, but with a detour to Flint to drop his girlfriend off.

Needless to say, we spent three or four days in Flint before the roads were passable enough to get here.

– Larry Schmidt

As a native Detroiter who moved to Dowagiac 11 years ago after getting married, I am still amazed by what lake effect snow can do.

I enjoy updating relatives from California to Texas to Detroit to the East Coast on how much our little town is getting.

I’m sure there must be others like myself.

I’ve always thought it would be a good idea if the Dowagiac Daily News published the “official” tally for how much snow our town gets.

As we all know, our total is generally a lot different than South Bend’s or Kalamazoo’s.

Until that happens, I’ll keep measuring the top of our kids’ outdoor toy box.

– Kevin Conley
•••

Jan. 14 I learned Suzanne Klimek is leaving SMC after five years.

I’ve worked with her as her title grew to executive director marketing/public relations and enrollment management.

She departs Feb. 26 and starts March 15 for a health-related company in South Bend, Ind., that makes orthotic foot braces just 10 minutes from her house.

“It was a tough decision,” she said. “I love working at SMC.”

A Minnesota native, she would describe the recent deep freeze as “balmy.”
Best wishes, Suzi!