Candy suggested I start a thread for my newspaper articles, but for now I'll just put them here, until we get settled in our new (online) home.
This article appeared in the Christmas edition of the weekly paper where I work. Twenty five years ago this Christmas Eve this part of the country was hit with a massive snowstorm. McCall's magazine, a popular woman's magazine here in the States, reported on it. This story tells of Ripley's part in that night as remembered 25 years later by the people who were there.
"Ripley's Miracle" Revisited 25 Year Later
'Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the town
Not a car was moving
For the snow coming down.
Twenty five years ago this Christmas Eve Ripley was buried in several feet of snow, the Thruway closed (note: the Thruway is what we call the major stretch of interstate highway here in New York State), and hundreds of travelers were stranded. McCall's magazine call it Ripley's Miracle. For those who traveled through this small village that Christmas, it was a miracle indeed.
The travelers were stranded
I-90 ordered to close.
In their cars they were buried
Right up to their nose.
The storm had started hours before, with temperatures hovering around 0° and high winds, the roads were treacherous, and Interstate 90 at the New York line was closed. The Colonial Squire motel filled up within minutes and holiday travelers were being buried in the blinding drifts. The fire department put out the call, Emergency, all men needed. It was snowing so hard the state snowplows had been called off the roads. "One woman offered me $500 to drive to Rochester to pick up her husband who was stranded there," Curt Coburn recalls. He refused.
Mother and Dad were
Anxious as well
To get out of the blizzard
Into a hotel.
When what to their wondering
Eyes should appear,
But the townsfolk with
Plows and trucks coming near.
For hours on end Curt, who had a pickup truck with chains and a plow, cleared the way to the Thruway so caravans of cars could be brought to the firehouse. As the number of stranded cars grew, families with pets (including a snake) were kept at the firehouse. The rest were taken to Ripley Central School. All through the night travelers were brought in, either in their own cars, or loaded into emergency vehicles and transported to safety.
A convoy was started
For those in harm's way,
To the school they were taken
To await Christmas day.
The Red Cross was called
There were hundreds to feed.
The stores were all emptied
To fill the need.
President of the Fireman's Auxiliary, Deborah Coburn, helped get things organized at the school. Calls were made to the Red Cross, asking for more blankets, food, and medicine. The job of feeding all those people was a daunting one. Patty MacDonald, who was working at the Super Duper, a full service grocery store in town, says, "Paul Elchenski, the owner of the store, called and said take every bit of candy and make packages for the kids. There must have been two or three hundred of them. We took the candy to the school on a sled." She went on to say, "It was all such a blur. They kept calling me (from the school) because I had the keys to the store. We kept going back and forth, getting more food. We cleaned out the store. The people were wonderful. The Christmas spirit was there, even though they were stuck at the school." Additional food was shuttled in from North East by snowmobile. Smith's Market was open and brought in fresh produce.
The children and babies,
The old and the sick,
The moms and the dads
Pitched in pretty quick.
The kitchen was opened
There was work to be done
To feed this crowd of
Eight hundred and one.
Mary Ann Moffat walked to the school that night to help in the kitchen. "The people who came just chipped in and helped," she said. "We made things we could cook quickly, like macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, things like that." The cafeteria's stock of food was used, but a call had to be made to Albany to get permission to use the government surplus food, like cheese and butter.
"I was there all night, providing security," remember Butch Joint. "There weren't a lot of problems, but we'd get a group of people who'd want to bring beer in or something, and I'd have to tell them no." There were instances where people didn't have medications they needed, so trips were made to nearby hospitals and pharmacies, some taking as long as four hours round trip. "I was there all night and day," Butch said. "We tried to keep the upstairs of the school closed. We had people all over downstairs, in the gyms, the cafeteria, the library."
Everyone remembers "the judge," although memories vary. Some remember her cutting fruit for dinner, others say she ws chopping onions and crying, or maybe washing dishes between meals. Most people don't remember where exactly she was from, just that she pitched in to help. In fact, she is Rosemary Sacket, now Chief Judge of the Iowa Court of Appeals and she was traveling that night with her husband and four children. "We were on our way to visit our eldest son in Vermont. We didn't get there. It was before the days of cell phones, and there was one pay phone in the school with a long line waiting to get through to their families." Before becoming stranded in Ripley, the Sackets had stopped for pizza. "The jukebox was playing 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas' and somebody got up and pulled the plug," she reminisced. "The town was very welcoming. We had chili for Christmas dinner, and someone brought in boxes of apples. It's a Christmas my family always talks about. We have fond memories of Ripley, but have never been back to visit."
The children were anxious
For Santa to see,
But all seemed lost
On this Christmas Eve.
Santa hadn't forgotten the children. The fireman who was supposed to play Santa was fast alseep and couldn't be woken. Exhaustion from hours of fighting the storm was too much, so Bob MacDonald was called upon to play the part. "I enjoyed it very much," he said, "it was really fun. We had candy bagged up and in a garbage bag, and I handed it out. I asked the kids where they were going, and told them Santa had been there and their toys were waiting. It was a new experience for me."
Christmas was coming
Whether home or away.
The spirit of Yuletide
Grew stronger that day.
Gary and Janet Skinner recall how calls came in from various townspeople, offering their homes to travelers. Some of the elderly and families with young babies were taken to private residences to wait out the storm. People came with dishes of scalloped potatoes and ham, and other foods intended for their families who were now at the school helping out. Reverend Doug Knopp offered a Christmas candlelight service. Locker rooms were opened for showers, games and activites were organized all over the school to keep people busy. "Our daughter, Sherri, was running the sound system in the office. She remembers announcements constantly going," - basketball in the small gym, card games in the cafeteria, Christmas carols, TV videos. It wasn't home for the stranded or the townspeople who were helping, but it "had a safe feeling," said Sherri. "It was a special experience with our kids," Janet recalled, "the true meaning of Christmas."
At one point on Christmas day, a television crew from Buffalo made it through, "so people thought they could get out" added Gary Skinner. "There were some college students who said they had to get to Buffalo to catch a plane for their connection to Switzerland, to go skiing." That notion was soon dispelled. The snow kept coming.
By the 26th the storm had died down. People began leaving Ripley, some to continue on with their trips, some to turn around and go back home. "It was almost a bigger mess gettting them out than getting them in," said Curt Coburn. "The snow was so piled up and we had to dig them out, then they'd get stuck again." But leave they all eventually did. Ripley indeed performed a Christmas miracle that year. God bless us, every one.
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