Netlet: Remembering an Armistice Day when the weather wasn't so lovely

Herbert A. Schoening, Herbert A. Schoening

Lake Harriet on Nov. 9, photographed by someone who remembers a November day in 1940 when the scene was quite different: The region had been clobbered by the Armistice Day blizzard.

By Herbert A. Schoening

Last update: November 11, 2009 - 5:26 PM

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At 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1940, the rain started changing to snow. I remember it well because my uncle and aunt had come to Minneapolis from Spring Valley to see the Gophers-Michigan football game at Memorial Stadium. They drove away from our south Minneapolis house when the snow started.

The storm was fierce. The visibility was zero and by mid-afternoon the streetcars stopped running as did automobiles. There was an eery silence except for the howling wind. At 5 a.m. on Nov. 12 I got out of bed, trudged through knee deep snow to 50th and Bryant to pick up my bundle of Minneapolis Morning Tribune newspapers. I delivered them to all of my 30 customers and then went home for breakfast.

I was so excited about the snow that I put on my skis to see the results of the snowfall in the light of day. I headed toward Lake Harriet on Minnehaha Parkway, skiing over the tops of cars that had been stranded, Upon reaching the lake I was surprised to see that it was frozen from shore to shore. The drifts on the lee side of the snow fence were 8 feet high. Schools were closed for two days, but even though the temperature was well below zero we ventured outside and explored the results of the storm most of those two days.

On Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, I walked on the path by Lake Harriet in nearly the same spot as I was 69 years ago and took this picture. What a difference from 69 years ago.

Incidentally, all of the paper carriers who delivered their papers that day got a signed Certificate of Merit from the president and publisher, G.B Bickelhaupt. Mine is framed and hanging on the wall of my study.

Herbert A. Schoening, Minneapolis

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