Professor Hamilton's Diary: Jan. 24, 1935

The frigid winter weather grips the Hamiltons -- and many others

As far as the record books show, the winter of 1936 was a humdinger of a bad one — 42.9 inches of snow in Iowa! — but it sounds like 1935 was no picnic either. Gwennie Hamilton couldn’t walk easily through the drifts and got a ride to school today. (Apparently most of the schools were open, despite the weather.) That afternoon, her parents worked together hanging clothes on the line in their backyard “in spite of freezing wind.” They holed up inside that evening after Professor Hamilton came home from his classes.

The Reading Times contained several stories about how people had fared in the wintry blast. The photo postcard above, taken in the 1930s near Somerset, Pennsylvania, is being offered on eBay.

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