Battling the great blizzard of '66!

I called Karl Limvere (VCHS '63) recently to ask if he recalled the help he gave me during the blizzard of 1966. Karl is now pastor of the Zion United Church of Christ in Medina, N.D., after a career as state secretary of the North Dakota Farmers Union. Karl and I worked together at KOVC Radio in Valley City during the three years I spent back with the Ingstads, after graduation from the University of Minnesota and receiving a "voluntary quit" slip from KSTP Radio and TV in the Twin Cities. The reason I mention how I departed from KSTP is that lots of folks at that station - particularly on-air workers like myself - were freqently fired by Hubbard Broadcasting, the owners of the station.

Karl did remember that famous three-day blizzard and its aftermath and the favor he did for me and KOVC's listeners. JoAnne and I were living in Al Foss's Village Apartments in the southwest part of town, near Fritch Gardens. I was the "morning man" at the radio station during that first week of March, 1966, and started out for the downtown studio in my 1965 Custom 500 Ford sedan. About a block away from the apartment my car became firmly lodged in the snow. If memory serves, I was stuck right in front of the home of Dr. Clayton Jensen, the physician who delivered our first child in 1965.

I went back home and called Karl, who lived about three blocks from the station, and the rest of the story I tell in a recent Wordchipper column entitled One to Remember. Click on that link if you'd like to read my essay. I really appreciated Karl's favor to me and it was good to chat with him about that time, the really big storm we battled, and our days at Valley City High School.

The primary reason I wrote about this subject is to review a fascinating, fact-filled book entitled One to Remember: The Relentless Blizzard of March, 1966, by two UND grads, Douglas Ramsey and Larry Skroch. Might be a good Christmas present for a North Dakotan on your gift list.

If you have memories about that storm - I happen to know some pretty good parties were held at various venues (homes) around town, while I was working - please share in the comments section below. Thanks - Larry Gauper