THE NEW YEAR’s EVE MYSTERY
By James R. von Feldt
Well, here we are once again looking directly at the turning of another year. It’s been a good year. At least it wasn’t a bad year. And, of course, the farmers are already planning for a better year coming up.
The Gas & Grill will be closed on the first day of the new year but they will be open till late on New Year’s Eve. Once again, Ed Willis is hosting a New Year’s Eve get-together for anyone who wants to drop in and there will be a crowd-stopping by to celebrate with Ed.
Ed started the celebration back in 97 the year after his car broke down east of town in a snowstorm on New Year’s Eve. Elmer and Delores were running the Gas & Grill then. The story goes that when Ed stumbled in the door, he looked like he was half-frozen with ice and snow. He said he was following the middle stripes on the road to get to town to get help. In a white-out, you can hardly see your hand in front of your face. He said he saw lights flicker on and off and thought this was a home.
He had left his wife Terra and little girl Bessie in the car and had gone for help. He couldn’t see where he was going. The car had gone off the road into a ditch. Nobody was hurt. When they left their farmhouse, the storm had not yet hit. They were on the way to Ed’s brother’s house in Bloomfield for a family celebration.
When the storm started, Elmer had decided to close up but was worried that he would have trouble getting home. He said you couldn’t even see the gas pumps out front for the snow. At that time, they were living in the old Cramer farmhouse about a half-mile south of town. Delores was afraid. She didn’t want to go out into the storm. Then the lights flickered and went off.
Now here’s the big mystery. Elmer said the lights had been off about half an hour before Ed came stumbling in the door. Ed said he saw lights flickering and turned off the road to go to the lights expecting to see a house. It’s unexplainable. There are lots of speculations on that one.
Anyway, Ed made it inside. The electricity was off and it would be off for three days all through town. It was going to be a bad storm. Ed was beside himself. He had to get help to his wife and child. They were out there in the dark, in the storm, and the car would soon be out of gas. They would freeze if they weren’t rescued soon.
Delores and Elmer had been discussing their options. They could stay in the Gas & Grill. It had a generator to keep the gas heater and lights working but they hadn’t started it yet. They figured they would stay with someone in town when the storm let up a bit. Almost everybody in town was prepared for storms and it wasn’t too unusual to have the electricity go out for a day or so. But now, there was an emergency.
The second mystery appeared when Delores called the fire station for help. Fire Chief Kelly answered the phone. Actually, there were two more mysteries here. One, the phone worked. Others in town reported that the phone lines had broken down and were not working. Secondly, Fire Chief Kelley answered the phone at his house; his personal phone. Delores swears she dialed the fire station number.
At any rate, Kelly was the right person to call. He had anticipated trouble. He had been notified earlier in the day that a bad storm was approaching and that temperatures would drop severely. The storm started with light rain that quickly turned to Ice then the snow began to fall heavily. Eventually, the wind began blowing and gusting whipping the snow into a furry; white-out.
When Fire Chief Kelly finished with the call from Delores, he tried to call his emergency crew. The phones were dead. He used his emergency radio to contact Frosty, Owen, and Larry. The radios ran on batteries and have a limited range but they worked. They were instructed to make their way to the Gas & Grill. They had a rescue to plan.
One by one the volunteer firemen made it to the Gas & Grill. Elmer had started the generator and turned on all the lights he could think of even the ones in the laundromat.
Frosty came in first. He lived closest on Lincoln Street a block north. He just cut through the back yards to get there. Owen and Fire Chief Kelly came in together. They live across the street from each other on North Main by the park. It took Larry a while but he made it. He said he walked down the middle of the road to get there because the white-out was so blinding. He saw the lights and came in.
Ed was out of his mind with worry for his family. He was insisting that he should go look for his wife and child right now. Elmer was arguing with him when Chief Kelly came in. The first thing Kelly did was get as much information as he could from Ed.
Ed lives about six miles south of Milton on V56. He said the storm turned to icing when he turned west on highway two at Milton. Milton is ten miles east of our town. Ed said that before long it was snowing hard then the wind started to blow. He couldn’t see anything in the car lights but he thought he saw an intersection right before he slid off the road. He said he didn’t know how long he had been walking before he made it to the Gas & Grill.
Kelly and the emergency crew got their heads together. They were trying to figure out how far they might have to go to find the car. And, they would have two people to bring back with them. Ed said his wife had a light coat. Bessie was dressed warmer in jeans, sweatshirt, warm coat, and boots.
The first problem was to find the car. The emergency team was dressed in cold weather gear and had three high-intensity lights. That would help them stay on the road but still limited their sight to about twelve feet. Beyond that, all they would see is a white wall of snow. Ed said he was sure the car was on the north side of the road when he slipped into the ditch. The crew estimated the car could be from two to six miles away. They would have to slowly walk and search to find them but how would they get them back? They may not be in condition to walk back.
Frosty had an idea. Lester, across the street from the Gas & Grill, has two Samoyed dogs that he trained to pull his grandkids on a sled.
“Go talk to Lester,” Kelly told Frosty, “but he’s not going. He’s had a heart attack and this may cause another.”
When Frosty came back, Lester was pulling two dogs and a sled. He tied them up to the gas pump in front of the Gas & Grill and went in.
“We’re ready,” Larry said in a hushed tone.
Lester had brought blankets. Delores and Elmer had lent their coats and found a heavy blanket and two pairs of gloves for the emergency team to take with them.
The Gas & Grill was the control center for this operation. Chief Kelly had his radio and would stay in contact. Lester would stay with Chief Kelly.
There were only two country roads on the north side of the road in between Milton and our town; Umber and Wheat. Umber was about one and a half miles away. Wheat was about eight miles away.
Larry, Owen, and Frosty tied the coats and blankets to the sled. Each dog had a reign that ran to the sled. Frosty had a leash on one of the dogs. After checking with Chief Kelly through their radios they left. Larry and Owen led the way slowly using their high-intensity lights to find the north side of the road. Frosty followed leading the dogs. They proceeded east slowly.
Chief Kelly’s radio crackled and sputtered. You could hear the men’s conversation as they proceeded. They were walking along the north edge of the pavement looking for signs of a car in the ditch and talked as they went. The snow and wind kept them from being able to see to the other side of the road.
Their radio signals were getting weaker and weaker as they got further away. The crew was at Umber when one of the dogs broke loose and ran off ahead of the men. Chief Kelly heard the men yelling at the dog. Soon after, the radio went out of range and was dead.
One hour slowly marched, tick by tick, to two and then three. Ed was going crazy. Elmer and Delores were both trying to calm him down when the door opened violently and a snow-covered dog crashed into sight.
“We made it, we’ve made it,” Larry yelled as he stuck his head in the door.
“Give us a hand,” Frosty yelled from outside by the pumps.
Lester, Ed, and Elmer were out the door in a shot.
The snow was coming down hard and the wind was blowing billows of white every which direction. There on the sled were two people. Ed ran to them and helped them get off the sled. They were bundled in blankets.
Soon everyone was inside. Ed and his family were laughing and crying at the same time. It was a joyful reunion.
When things settled down Chief Kelly asked Owen to tell what had happened.
“Well,” he said, “we were going slow looking for the car and we finally reached Umber when the dog broke loose and took off. He ran out of sight instantly in the white-out. We could hear him barking but we couldn’t see him. So, we just kind’a forgot about him and kept on looking for the car on the north side of the road.
We had gone quite a bit further and we heard the dog barking again. This time we were getting closer to the dog but we couldn’t see him. We couldn’t see much beyond ten feet or so. Finally, we could hear the dog going nuts barking and barking and it seems like he was real close by but we couldn’t see him. We stood still and Frosty went to the other side of the road. He was out of sight but started yelling at us. He had found the dog and the dog had found the car. The dog found the car.”
When everyone was warmed up and calm again, they drank coffee, had a bite of blackberry pie, and talked about the rescue. Emergency housing was found for Ed and the family as well as for Elmer and Delores. However, before they left Ed proclaimed that he would never forget the New Year’s party at the Gas & Grill, and would endeavor to have one every year for anyone who would want to stop in.
It’s always quite a party. Most everyone in the community stops by even if it’s for just a minute to say “Hi.” Ed, and his family will be there. And, sure enough, a topic of conversation includes all kinds of speculation about the mysteries.
So that’s it for now.
From where the corn grows tall and pigs’ fly
Take care.
All my love.
Grampa Jim.