52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 45 "Stormy Weather"

WINTER STORMS ALONG LAKE MICHIGAN

I was born in St. Joseph, Michigan which sits along the shores of Lake Michigan.  On a bright and sunny day it is possible to see across the lake to the skyline of Chicago.

St. Joseph is a beautiful area and the beaches are fantastic.  There is the St. Joseph lighthouse which was once featured on a US postage stamp.  St. Joseph and the surrounding areas are a mecca for tourists.

When I was just a small child my parents and I moved across the state to the suburbs of Detroit where my father worked as a barber.  We would return to St. Joseph every Easter and during the summer to visit my maternal grandparents and other relatives.  St. Joseph was my special place and as a teen I started dreaming of actually moving back to St. Joe and settling there.  

Many years were to pass, however, before I did accomplish that long term goal when I did move back and settle in St. Joe in 1997.

However, on the topic of Stormy Weather I was reminded of one trip we took to St. Joe not for Easter but for Palm Sunday in 1962.

One of my cousins was being confirmed and since we were close with his family we traveled from Detroit to St. Joe on the Saturday before Palm Sunday.  As we always did we would not leave Detroit until my father closed his barber shop at 6 pm on Saturday and we would get on I-94 and some 3 1/2 hours later we would be arriving at my grandparent's home.  The weather was cooperative on the drive down and we drove past the beautiful St. Joseph lighthouse which is pictured here:

The confirmation service on Sunday, April 15th was fine and the reception after was enjoyable, however, the weather was changing.  As was my father's "rule" we would head back to Detroit no later than 4 pm as he would have to open the barber shop on Monday morning.  There would be no exceptions to his travel plans and we set off for home at about 4 pm.

Then the beautiful spring weather changed into an horrendous ice storm that followed us all the way along I-94 across the state.  We saw cars sliding off the highway into ditches, people either driving like maniacs or driving exceptionally slow and my mother tried to convince my father to turn around and go back to her mother's house.  Of course, he would not, being the stubborn man he was.  

Here are some pictures of the St. Joseph lighthouse during an ice storm:

The usual 3 1/2 hour trip took much longer than usual.  By the time we reached Ann Arbor my father had had enough of the weather and he pulled off into a rest area where we sat for over an hour waiting for the storm to hopefully ease up.  Of course these were the days without cell phones and my grandmother back in St. Joseph was quite worried.

Around 11 pm - a good 7 hours after leaving St. Joe we did arrive back home.  My mother immediately dialed her mom to let her know that the driving was nasty but that we did arrive home safely.

Here is what the lighthouse looked like the next day after an ice storm.

I have driven this route myself many times over the years and have been caught in torrential rainfall, wind and sleet and I admit that I have been known to pull off the highway and wait out the weather. 

However, I have not personally experienced the horrors of driving in an ice storm of the magnitude of the one in 1962.  In retirement I now have the attitude that if the weather is bad I do not have to venture out of my home at all and I don't.

Copyright 2021, Cheryl J. Schulte

Photos from Google Images