Blizzard!

Iowa in March 1870, although there are many indications that the world was already in popular use, at least in Iowa where the local baseball team was known as the Northern Blizzards.

Blizzards have a way of stopping life in its tracks, and particularly human activity. They have even toppled local governments slow to respond to the accumulated snow. But many of us also remember blizzards fondly, the opportunity for an unexpected holiday, a "snow day." In his epic poem Snowboundabout a snowstorm (likely a blizzard), John Greenleaf Whittier wrote of

"A night made hoary with the swarm
And whirl-dance of the blinding storm,
As zigzag, wavering to and fro,
Crossed and recrossed the wingëd snow:"

But, even the great snow could not quench the comfort of home:

"What matter how the night behaved?
What matter how the north-wind raved?
Blow high, blow low, not all its snow
Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow."

Copyright 2003, Keith C. Heidorn, All Rights Reserved. (Illustration ©Keith C. Heidorn, All Rights Reserved.)

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