Southern New Mexico is smack in the middle of a La Nina weather pattern. Which means not a lot of the white stuff for us this year. I’m missing that snow so here’s a link to some cold weather duds and fun from days gone by:
https://weather.com/sports-recreation/ski/news/2013-12-16-vintage-winter-
wear-cold-below-zero-coat-20131014
I really like the lady skiing behind her fuzzy coated horse in slide 7. That would have been me in the last century. Also, the motor sleigh in slide 10 is a riot! Forerunner of the snowmobile I guess.
One of the beautiful things about the Southwest is our mild weather and sunshine but we get the cold weather friskies just like folks in days gone by. Notice how everyone is smiling in the slide show above?
Of course, their faces might be frozen that way.
Anyone have some old pics of winter fun or fashion in our neck of the woods? And for those of you that follow along from other parts of the country—send ‘em in, we want to see! In fact, here’s a couple winter shots from a memorable trip I took with my daughter to England a few years back—right after their worst ice storm in 30 years. Made for some gorgeous scenery! These pics were taken in Keswick and Penrith in the Northern England lake country.
Can you share some vintage winter photos and stories of what you or your family used to do for fun when the mercury dropped? Anyone have an old story your grandparents used to tell of a cold winter back in the early 1900s here in New Mexico? I’d love to hear it.
Or maybe your family recalls winter storms when you get together. One of my personal history clients tells of the terrible blizzard of ’57 that hit nine states and made national headlines, sweeping across New Mexico and the plains states.
Cattleman Pat Withers in the oral history collection Homes on the Range, (Peter Eidenbach and Beth Morgan) recalls a June snowstorm in the Tularosa Basin:
“…It come 3 inches of the wettest snow in the forest –three of the wettest, coldest cowboys you ever saw in your life. We went up there the day before and gathered and bedded ’em down on the fence line that night.
Went up there the next mornin’, just as pretty a day as you ever saw. and here come a northern over that hill, just a big ol’ black cloud, and went to snowin’ and the wind a blowin’; boy, we liked to froze to death –we’s in our shirt sleeves. it was ’44, I believe…that’s the coldest I’ve ever been. i finally dug into a big ol’ beargrass and got it on fire, and we stood around that as close as we could and kinda dried out and warmed up….”
Whichever winter story you have, fun or fright, share it with us and start the conversation.
Here’s a hot chocolate toast to all,
Karen