A White Downtown
Jim Beckel provides us a glimpse of downtown post storm. If you have photos of your own of downtown this weekend, please email me a copy at slackmeyer@oklahoman.com and I’ll post it here on the blog!
And here are the first responses…. (I’ll update as I receivce images):
Snow takes over at NW 5 and Hudson, Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve - and nothing is moving. Photo by Vinh Amis
Homeless man takes shelter at empty former gas station, 7 p.m. Christmas Eve. Photo by Vinh Amis
St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 3 p.m. Christmas Eve. Photo by Vinh Amis
Oklahoma Spirit Trolley stranded, 5 p.m. Christmas Eve. Photo by Vinh Amis
Nothing is moving downtown; 8 p.m. Christmas Eve. Photo by Vinh Amis
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Comments
seeing that stuck trolley reminded me of an old story. years ago, i used to work at the haunted house. one night (near new years), a huge snowstorm came, and i ended up spending the night with the boss and his family. art (my boss) told me about a story that happened to him shortly after WWII.
back in those days, art was a professional musician (and a darn good one, too). he played the trumpet, and al tell played piano. they had a new year’s or christmas party at either the skirvin or the biltmore. that night, a winter storm blew in during the dance that brought a strange form of sleet, about the size of BB’s. it virtually covered the entire city within a few hours, and made traffic virtually impossible. NO ONE could move, period! he said it was like the world was blanketed in slippery ball bearings. the hotel had to let everyone stay in (fortunately, they were well-stocked for the party).
what made it most interesting was, they had to stay for several days (maybe the better part of a week). the streetcar tracks were still there, and the only vehicle that could roam the street was the trash truck, which they somehow got to run on the streetcar rails. the interurban had already been shut down, but only very recently. i’m guessing this was probably about 1948, but i don’t know.
it was neat to hear him tell it, especially how everybody really pulled together as a community while the city rode out the storm. are there any other recollections out there of this event?
Hey, I actually found an Oklahoma Spirit Trolley! That doesn’t happen every day. Kind of ironic that it was stuck, stranded in a blizzard. Oh well..maybe one of these days I’ll see one in operation, going down the street, full of happy people enjoying the ride through Downtown OKC.