Life of Telecommunications Technician 1964
I haven't did a blog post in a few days so I thought I would do one of my life experiences.
Trip to St. Anthony with the Boss Knut Fosnaesy
MY boss Knut Fosnaes came to Roddickton which was my Headquarters after Leaving Corner Brook for a visit. He wanted me to go to St. Anthony a two hour trip normally with him to do some work on the exchange. We stayed in Flowers Cove that night because we got delayed around Anchor Point because of snow we shoveled and pushed and made it through to Flowers Cove around supper time . It called for snow the next day so we started out for St. Anthony around seven AM the next morning. We traveled for about a half hour when it started to snow. We went on for another while we were almost up to Big Brook about forty kilometers from Flowers Cove and there was a blizzard developing. I told my boss that it was only going to be worst around Pistolet Bay with drifting we wouldnât make it to St . Anthony. I told him about a trip myself and Lloyd Wiseman went to St. Anthony and there was drifting at the bottom of Pistolet Bay and that wasnât even a bad night. We had to shovel snow banks for thirty or forty feet . We went on to St. Anthony and on our way back the next night we got stuck in the same place Lloyd looked in the trunk and there was no shovel. I walked down the road and our shovel was stuck in the snow bank where I left it the night before I picked up the shovel and shoveled out our car and we went on our merry way. I donât how many people that shovel helped. Okay getting back to my story. By that time it would be too late to turn around and expect to get back to Flowers Cove. We turned around and started back it wasnât so bad at first. When we got about halfway back to Flowers Cove it was blowing a blizzard off the Straights of Belle Isle. We passed several small communities on the way back. There was times we couldnât see a house a hundred feet off the road. Sometimes we had to stop because we couldnât see the shoulder of the road. We took turns walking by the side of the car so we wouldnât drive the car off the road into the ditch. There was a small figure head on the front of the car three feet away sometimes we couldnât see it. It was times like that we just sat in the car and waited for it to clear up. The wind was blowing so hard that no snow gathered on the road. We plodded along like this for four hours until finally we came to a place where there was a dip in the road and snow had gathered and we got stuck. We sat in the car for fifteen or twenty minutes and couldnât see a thing. When it cleared up a little I looked out the window and seen a ESSO gas station sign ten or fifteen feet off the road we were stuck in front of the service station in Flowers cove. We went in the service station and a couple of guys came out and gave us a push out. We went down the road to Allinghamâs boarding house not far from the service station where we stayed the night before. We arrived back in the boarding house about one o'clock after being on the road for five hours and only went about forty kilometers and back. The storm kept up for the rest of that day all that night and the next day. It cleared up the next night so the next morning we decided to go back to Roddickton and scrap the St. Anthony trip but when we got to Anchor Point the road was blocked. There was so much snow that the local plows couldnât get the road open. The Department of Highways had to get a snow blower to come in from Corner Brook to open the road around Anchor Point so we had to stay in Flowers Cove another night. We were stuck in Flowers Cove for four days. That same time there was another technician Melvin Farrell working in Flowers Cove and staying the same place we were staying. He went down to the telephone building in the morning. He worked away all morning and when he decided to go for lunch he looked out and the storm was on. He decided to go back to the boarding house. He didnât take his car because he thought he may get stuck so he figured he would walk it was only about fifteen minutes walk. While he was walking the snow got so heavy he didnât know if he was on the road or not he had to get off the road and put his hand on the fences. He thought he was going to smother because the wind was taking away his breath. After being out in the storm for about two hours he finally made it back to the boarding house.
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Fantastic story Francis. Is there a follow up. I can imagine every step you went through.
Bux
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Wow! Now that's a blizzard! đł