Local land lines used to go down from overuse—no dial tone.”
I read most of these stories and comments and have to laugh. We lived in western Kansas. Don’t remember anyone even worrying about calling anyone during a storm - but then we had a 12 party crank phone, everyone just picked up the phone periodically and talked to whomever was on the line. Also don’t remember ever having a snow day at school and let me tell you we used to have some pretty deep snow in Kansas. Our teacher’s husband would just hitch their team up to a flat wagon and off they would go, always arriving in time to ring the bell at 8 o’clock sharp. Everyone had at least one horse and I do remember my dad tying me on the saddle so I wouldn’t fall off anywhere along the two mile route, hitting the horse on the rump and away we would go. The teacher’s husband then untied us when we got to school. There was a lean-to where we kept our horses during the school day and then we would begin the long trek back home. Not sure I would be willing or able to do it any more but it was the way we lived and coped with whatever we were handed some 60 years ago.
How about before satellite weather, you just got the storm, no 3 day build-up, no flops, it snowed when it snowed and people were smart enough to keep supplies on hand, after all it was winter, no french toast and tp rush.