Spring Thaw



Visualize covered in mud!

 I am not sure how deep the frozen tundra was, but after 5 or 6 months of below freezing temperatures, it would be considerable. The ground being frozen so solid had its advantages, as in our area there were sections of muskeg, and when frozen, you could drive horses and wagons, tractors etc. over it. When not frozen a tractor would literally sink for feet and be completely bogged down. One example of why you would cross muskeg when frozen is; if you were planning on building a fence through or on the other side of the muskeg, you could take the posts etc. over when frozen and leave them there until the ground was thawed so you could dig post holes and build the fence. The disadvantage of frozen ground is – that it has to thaw out. When a thaw occurred the snow would always melt first and because the ground was still frozen the water would run on the surface, filling ditches, all low areas, plugging wooden culverts with debris – at times causing the water to wash out sections of the dirt roads (not even the main road was paved), and finally much of this water would find its way to small rivulets, creeks and rivers, which were also in the process of thawing. As the rivers thawed, huge chunks of ice would break away and float downstream, and with the run off from the mountains and also by being fed by the overflowing rivulets and creeks, soon the river would become a very dangerous worry. None of what I have written so far is new, as the same thing happens today – the difference being there are now flood control areas, much larger culverts and better built roads. In 1943 (although we lived about 250 yards from it I do not remember) the only bridge on the main road from Edmonton to Whitecourt was taken out with a huge ice jamb. I do not know how long it took to replace it, but we did have a one car ferry that was used. In the Spring it was big news when the ‘river watchers’ reported the first break up of the ice, as from then until the thaw subsided, people were not sure how much damage, if any, would be caused – how much ‘low land’ would be filled with debris from the high water, etc. There was a small river between our town and where my Grandfather lived, and it flooding was a reason, that one year, I went to a one room school for so long. The great thing about a spring thaw is that all of a sudden anyone and everyone that still owned model T Fords, and similar vintage Chevrolets, (and other models) would bring them out of the barns, etc. fire them up, and that is the only way they could navigate through the mud, gumbo*, ruts, slush, etc. Spring driving conditions were the main reasons many kept these old cars. The secret was their very narrow tires. They could roll through deep mud much easier than a wide tire, which would get stuck very quickly. Those old cars could really move, and they were so much fun to drive. I related in a previous story about cranking, setting the air/gas ratio etc. If it wasn’t for these vehicles, I am not sure what most farmers would have done to get to town. Mind you, most farmers were pretty well self sufficient for food, raising their own livestock and chickens= eggs, and root cellars and preserves. In these early cars, the gas tank was right in front of the windshield, higher than the engine. The gas would be gravity fed and it would work great until you had to climb a hill for any distance. Once the front of the car was higher than the gas container – gravity did not work any more and the engine would stall. There were two ways to get around this problem. One was a primer pump, located on the front dash board of the car, and you would hand pump the gas to the engine and two – you would turn the car around and back up the hill – simple! My Grandfather had an old Chev, and the primer was way over on the right hand side of the dash. I got to go on dates with my older cousin as he could not reach the primer from the driver’s side, and when he and his girl friend went out I would get to go along and be the "primer pumper" – hehehehe!

*Gumbo – it is what the mud in our area was called. It would stick to you boots in huge amounts, until your feet got bigger and bigger and made it harder to walk (very heavy) – finally you had to use a piece of wood (or something similar) to scrape it away and then as you walked it would build up again. It was terrible stuff.