Snowy Terror on Alabama 36

On December 26 this past year Dianne, our son Amos and myself were headed from Pelham to Huntsville. I had read about the chance of snow flurries in north Alabama, but didn't pay much attention to that forecast. Yet by the time we turned off I-65 onto Alabama 36 at the Hartselle exit, a snow event was taking shape. 

We still had some daylight when traffic began to crawl pretty close to our goal, US 231. We needed to go north across the Tennessee River, and then we would near  mom's house. However, as we crawled along, we eventually determined from Google Maps, Twitter and occupants of cars going west that the river bridge was closed. Meanwhile, trucks managed to get through the traffic to drop salt on the road. 

One gentlemen going west advised my son, who was driving, that "They're all morons [back there]; they won't get moving." That wisdom has quickly become a family phrase to go along with "Traffic flowing freely" that we picked up from the AI voice in our rental vehicle on a 1998 visit to England. 

We eventually made our way to the Wavaho gas station at the corner of 36 and 231; I've written about that landmark here. After a much needed restroom break, we slowly crossed the salted river bridge and safely made it to mom's house. The whole event only took ninety minutes or so, but seemed much longer. 

More comments accompany some of the photographs below. I can only say, be sure to have bread and milk in your car if you encounter any snow on Alabama 36!

I've written several blog posts on other Alabama 36 topics. These include the abandoned 36 Grocery, the towns of Cotaco and Valhermoso Springs and the Lacey's Spring Cemetery. 

Our first sign of the impending doom: Snow around the Cracker Barrel at the Alabama 36 exit on I65 North. 

The road ahead--little did we know....

Fields were starting to get a nice dusting....

Since we were travelling the day after Christmas, signs of the holiday decorated several houses along the route. 

So far so good....

This ghost from Halloween hung around until Christmas.

Another field and a prominent tree...

This house burned sometime in the last year or so.

Driving by woods on a snowy evening....

I have written about Cotaco here. 

This church is featured in the Valhermoso Springs post. 

A sign of things to come...

I've written about this abandoned grocery, gas station and cafe here. 

Even abandoned cars had some snow.

We finally arrived home at mom's house on Green Mountain Road. Police had closed the road just above her house, and many cars were parked in the area. A few remained overnight. 

Son Amos took this photo and the two below when he went for a walk after we arrived at mom's. I wrote about this cemetery in 2014; it seems to have had better care since then. 

Enough snow fell to write in at least! You can't see the "Happy" preceding the year. 

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.