Muscatine

Here boys: bridge collapse history:

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2007/08/03/news/local/doc46b2b6a334cf3840074845.txt

Now I know why I missed the bridge falling.  I graduated from HS in 1955 and went to California for one year before returning.  Time sure does fly.

I'm not very good at making long stories short, but I'll do my best.

I'm not a native Iowan either, but this is one thing I'll never forget.

I was born and raised in the Bay Area of California.  I had never seen snow before.  Well, from afar on the mountains, but never touched it, or played in it.  It was the Summer of 1970, and I was 8, almost 9 years old.  We had a crappy car, so my mom borrowed one, and she, along with the 5 remaining kids packed into an Oldsmobile convertible and headed to North Dakota to see my sister who had just had her first baby.  We were somewhere between Rawlings and Laramie Wyoming when it started to snow.  It was June, and we were all shocked to see snow.  None of us knew how to drive in it either.  We eventually couldn't see the road anymore, so we pulled off an exit and tried to get a hotel room.  Of course, they were full. (might have been my brother going in in my mom's pink sweater?  Not sure)...but none of us were dressed for cold weather.  The 6 of us slept in the car (top up).  When I woke up, everything was white.  I had never seen anything so beautiful.  My oldest brother went into the hotel to get coffee  hot chocolate, and a few minutes later a couple of employees came out and talked to my mom.  From their lost & found, they had enough warm clothes for my and my youngest brother to stay warm enough to play in the snow for a while.  I was 9, and it was the coolest thing I had ever experienced.

I don't think I'll ever look at snow like that again.  When did it become just something to shovel?

Great story.