On December 11 and 12 in 1944, a severe snowstorm hit Southern Ontario. Thorold was seriously affected. Seventy-five years later, that storm remains a record for the date.
The town’s heavy duty truck was stranded in St. Catharines where it had been taken for servicing.
Only nine, of an enrolment of about 300 students, made it to the high school. Me among them. The only staff member on site was the principal, Fred Harvie, who eventually decided to dismiss the students and close the school. I do not remember the number of days affected. The students who arrived at the school would have trudged several blocks to do so, while a kid who lived on Carleton Street, directly opposite the school, was spotted peering around a curtain.
I decided to head for Henderson’s Drug Store where I had an after-school job. As I neared the store, the resident reporter for the St. Catharines Standard, Charles Complin, was traversing Front Street on skis. He lived on Chapel Street and unlikely ventured as far as the office.
There was a dip in Front Street at Albert and vehicles angle-parked on the east side of the street. Vehicles closer to the dip were under a huge amount of snow.
Eventually, the town truck was retrieved, with plow attached, and the clearing began. Other trucks were involved and without loading equipment a lot of shovelling must have taken place.
The canal by the old fire hall was where the snow was dumped.
