Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1949-02-24

Incompatible ]. E. M. who has
known us since the day we were
born and who probably has read
the Sentinel most of his life.
Dear Elsie:'
Il started the enclosed Valentine
with Dear Editor but that did not
look right. changed to Dear Mis-
tress Editor That meant the edi-
tors wife. Still wrong. So l adopted
My dear Editress,' coming the
word so far as. know.
Anyway, you can do as you
choose with it. I've had the amuse-
ment of writing it to pass the time.
don't want to put it in my own
wastebasket.
Yours. sincerely, hoping you
will have lots of Valentines,
JOHN E. MUNCASTER.
My dear Editress:
The letter of Mrs. Lillian Brin-
ton, listing her troubles in getting
out from home on account of the
little snow we had last week start
ed me thinking what a lot of us
real residents of the county en-
countered in living through be-
cause of past SHOWS. Of course
when resident of the Sunny
South" is domiciled in the wilds of
Montgomery County, it will be nee
essary for him to become accus-
toned to the way the snow he was
not raised with behaves-it has it's
own way about roads.
In the good old times, which a
few of us can remember, every
community took care of it's own
snow trouble. 1t was a lot less
costly to furnish a man or two for
a couple of days to clear the roads
than it is to have it done and put
on the tax bill. In 1899, when we
had our "big snow" our farm paid
a tax bill of $4,000. Last year, with
the same old buildings that were
here in 1899, the bill was $3O6.59.
When called on to help clear the
road of snow, all participated but
one man in the county. The story
goes that when he was asked to
furnish man to assist, he replied,
"God Almighty put the snow there,
and He will take it away in His
own good time"
To go back to 1899 - just so
years ago: From records on the
farm, on February l, 1899, four
inches of snow fell. 1t all melted
off in two days. On February a,
six inches fell; February 6, two
inches, February 7, two inches,
February 8, six inches. This fig
ures up to 10 inches, all with the
thermometer standing at 80 to 80
degrees. On the 9th, it went down
to z degrees below zero, and a high
wind started the snow to drifting
and the thermometer to dropping.
1t went to 20 below zero on the
18th, with high West wind and
a fine snow flying. This kept up
through the 18th and 18th, and
cleared on the 18th; the tempera-
ture never going above 4 or 5 de-
grees until the 14th. Then it really
shot up to 40, SO, go, but there
were 80 inches of snow on the
ground in the woods where wind
did not strike, and from six to ten
feet in the open.
] was shipping cream to T. B.
Stabler on the Norwood Road at
the time and we had on hand
cream for a whole week, so on the
18th we built a snow pillow and
towed it behind a four-horse wagon
with man on horseback to pick
the smallest drifts. There were no
drifts on the East West roads, but
it took from 10 A. M. to 3 P. M.
to make the five miles, and from
Norbeck on, we were not over a
fourth of a mile on the road, the
rest of the way on the fields.
Ed. Note: Mr.. Muncaster then
lived near Norbeck, not near Lay
tonsville.)
On the 18th, the Union Turn
pike from Brookeville and Ashton
to Washington had a single track
all the waU hut no otbay roodc