Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Snowfall on Cloverdale Drive in 1958

Back in January I posted an item on a family trip to the beach in 1956. This time it's winter in 1958. According to the National Weather Service, eight inches of snow fell in Huntsville, Alabama, in February 1958. I think I have the evidence. Let's investigate.


A Weather Service chart here tells us that this snowfall was the most Huntsville has ever received in February. The only deeper ones were December 1963 (a whopping 21.4 inches!) and January 1988 (9.6 inches). 





We begin our story with the cover of the photo album provided by H & H Walgreen Agency Drugs, an artifact from a dim past itself.





Here I am with mom and little brother Richard. I seem to be trying to take possession of the snowman. We are really bundled up!







Putting on what is supposed to be the head at this point. This photo shows the house on Cloverdale Drive in northwest Huntsville. I was born in Gadsden in 1952, and we moved to Huntsville a couple of years later. This house is the first one I remember from childhood. We lived in Redstone Park after first moving to Huntsville.  


Now we must have wandered over to the corner of the house. Brother Richard seems to have gotten tired of walking in that snow.



Lots of snow around this "pretty blue Ford" as mom remembers it. The car was my parents' first one, bought second hand. That's license number 47-6152, by the way. Remember when Alabama vehicle tags began with the two digit number designating the county? So "47" was Madison County. 

Too bad that system was dropped a few years ago. We used to entertain ourselves on trips around the state by seeing how many different counties we could spot.




Another shot of the front of the house and the snowman, with that Ford appearing in this one.




Richard was on his own at least once in this blizzard. This snow may have been the first significant one he had seen. 


And a final picture features just the snow, a corner of the house with garbage cans, a fence and a telephone pole. Another house can be seen on the right and snow covered roofs across the fence. A nice composition by dad, our photographer. Too bad we didn't get him in any photos of this event.



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