Every winter, we brace ourselves for what Mother Nature has in store. After last year’s mild winter, the law of averages says we are in store for one that is less than mild, leading us old timers to recall winters of lore and yore.

There are plenty of winters from my childhood that stand out for the amount of snow received — enough so that we could snowmobile straight across barren farm fields without having to worry about fences that divided properties. You could drive right over them.

Some individual storms come to mind, and the first one rolled in on a Friday, I believe Jan. 10, 1975. My brother, older by two years, had a friend come over after school for the night. A neighbor family of four from a couple miles away came over for supper and an evening visit.

Well, that night our evening of fun turned into a weekend of far more togetherness than I cared for. Being a pre-teen at the time, I do not recall the specifics, but I remember the snow started falling in the early evening, and we didn’t think much of it. We’re from Minnesota and it’s January — of course it’s going to snow.

The snow kept coming, so there was no leaving — not even for the family from only a couple miles away. We were all fine, as long as the electricity stayed on.

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It didn’t.

The power went out sometime Friday or Saturday, but we fortunately had a wood-burning fireplace, so we were able to cook some food and make warm drinks for the nine of us. Since the fireplace was our lone heat source, we all stayed close to it.

The novelty of this adventure wore off quickly, as we couldn’t get too far away from each other.

If I remember correctly, the snow let up on Sunday, the electricity came back on, and we could begin digging out so we could regain normalcy and sanity.

Halloween 1991

More recent in the annals of major Minnesota storms came on Halloween of 1991, just days after the Twins won the World Series.

Living on a country road less traveled can be treacherous during any winter, but that blizzard locked us in for a few days. A neighbor finally came over with his full-sized John Deere tractor (sorry, I don’t recall the model) with a rear-mounted snow blower. The 24 inches of snow that fell had been blown into drifts high enough that we could barely see the top of the blower spout as the neighbor started to methodically clear our yard.

That storm reminded me of snowfalls from my youth, but it also reminded me of how disconnected our urban friends can be. My boss at the time couldn’t understand why I was unable to get to work for a couple of days, since she could. She lived in the city where the office is located, and she had a mere few blocks to drive on streets cleared by the city crews.

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I lived about 35 miles from the office, but I was at the mercy of my neighbor when he could get down the township roads to our place. I showed my boss a picture of the barely visible tractor and blower for a visual of what country living is like.

Will this winter be one to remember, or will it be a repeat of last winter? I would be fine with a repeat.