Winter quarter began with a slushy start on Monday morning after a dusting of snow fell over the weekend. We love this throwback picture from January 1989 with skiers on Red Square enjoying a major snow storm.
Do you have memories of snow days at Evergreen? We would love to hear from you!
A great way to reconnect with past faculty and classmates, or to stay in touch with events at the college is to join The Associated Alumni and Friends of Evergreen. Learn more here!
Snowpocalypse: I don’t remember the year. A blizzard hit Thurston county so hard, that power was out in 5 different towns. The county called in emergency plows, which were essentially mini CAT shovel trucks outfitted with tiny plows. They took 3 to 4 passes to clear 2 lanes of traffic. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) was fixing power lines broken by temperate weather evergreen trees cracking under the stress of the freezing weather and heavy snow. PSE issued a statement saying that power was estimated to be out for 5 days as they worked through the county fixing lines as quickly as possible. Some areas might receive power sooner, but there were no guarantees.
Every day, everyone I knew was calling everyone else I knew to see who had gotten power first. Not many people in Olympia owned proper clothing for freezing weather, so as soon as someone got power, everyone would rush over to cook, drink, and sleep on the floor. At first, I couldn’t find anyone with power, but my friends did have a firewood stove. So we gathered as many people there as we could. I brought a bunch of beer I had brewed (kept cold by my unheated house.)
While I was grabbing the beer, I knocked on my roommate’s door. I opened it and was hit with the salted essence of confined man. The room was dark (no power plus Olympia skies.) I asked him to come with me, to the heat. I saw he had zippered himself into a coffin, in a sleeping bag under the sheets. Despite my insistence, he said he was completely fine.
I arrived with the beer. We told stories, played music, slept next to the fireplace, and played outside in the snow. It was amazing. When I came back to my house after about 3 days, of house hopping, I found my roommate in the kitchen. I asked him what he had done with his time. He said he stayed in the sleeping bag and got up a few times to cook or make hot tea, until the power came back on.
Don’t be afraid of meeting new people.
Thanks for sharing, Martin! I love your take away from that experience; that such adverse conditions can lead to new friendships and great memories.