Shortly after the official start of winter, Curbside Classics ran a story titled “The Cars in Our Neighborhoods in the ‘50s & 60s – Winter Edition.” The article featured a number of mid-century photos from northern US neighborhoods that pictured cars in, on, and sometimes covered in snow. The photos brought to mind my own childhood in Detroit during the 1950s and 1960s, when snowy days were much more frequent than they are today. When I think back it is always impossible to imagine how those big, heavy, rear-wheel drive automobiles managed to get anywhere when there was snow on the road, particularly since Detroit residential streets were never plowed. I remember the two-rack ruts that eventually formed down the middle of the street; oncoming cars would have to somehow maneuver around each other and the snow-covered cars parked along the curb. Often the street would freeze over after a quick thaw, turning into a makeshift skating rink. While some of us put on our skates, boys in the neighborhood would grab on to the rear fender of a passing car for a slippery joy ride down the street. As Detroit Public School students relied on public transportation, there were no official ‘snow days;’ we were expected to get to school as long as the buses were running. During the big snow storm of 1965, I boarded my usual bus to Cass Tech High School in downtown Detroit. After arriving over two hours later, I was told that school had been canceled; I thus caught the next bus back home and spent what was left of the rest of the day exploring the snow drifts with friends.
I was thankful for modern automotive technology, all-wheel drive, and winter tires when I entered graduate school at the age of 60, as I had a nearly 80-mile commute from rural Ann Arbor to Bowling Green, Ohio. Fortunately the route was almost all freeway, so I didn’t have to worry too much about two-rack ruts. There were some nights during the winter semester, however, where I encountered snowstorms either going to or coming from the BG campus. The high Toledo overpass from northbound I-75 to US 23 was especially scary as I couldn’t stop imagining myself skidding into the guardrail and plummeting into the traffic below. However, I was determined to not let fear take over; my Audi A4 with all-wheel drive, manual transmission, and winter tires was stable on the road, and got me through some rather hazardous driving conditions. On particularly bad nights I would just plant the car behind a long hauler and follow its tail lights all the way home. I am proud to say that I never missed a class due to the weather. My professors would often mention to my much younger cohorts that if I [old age implied] could make it to class in bad weather conditions, there was no excuse for their absences.
Now that I live in downtown Ann Arbor and can walk pretty much everywhere, I don’t have to deal with adverse weather conditions nearly as much as in the past. But every time there is a snowfall, I am hopeful that I can call on my past Detroit driving experiences to make my way – carefully and cautiously – along Michigan’s snowy roads.
