Students welcomed an unexpected three-day holiday Jan. 10, 11 and 12 due to an unusual snow-and-sleet-fall. Hopeful Mac students awoke at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to hear Austin’s School Superintendent Dr. Jack Davidson’s reluctant decision to close the schools.
Steady sleet beginning in the late afternoon hours covered roads, cars and walkways, making driving and even walking a hazard. Continuing throughout the night, the sleet made transportation almost impossible and playing conditions delightful. Rusty sleds, play toboggans and dusty snow pans were taken down, dusted off and tried out on the new, hardened surface.
Certain areas in Austin were frozen over and became bustling centers of sledding for old and young alike. In the McCallum area, prominent sledding locations were the highest hills, Mountain Climb, Highland Hills Drive, Crestway Drive, parts of Balcones, Far West Boulevard, the Hancock and Northland overpasses, Cavalier, Greystone and parts of Shoal Creek.
Ordinary objects and discarded utensils became great sleds and snow vehicles. Trash can lids, for-sale-signs, cardboard lids and boxes, laundry baskets, tubs and even hard plastic swimming pools were tested out on the “snow.” While sledders raced down hills and driveways, more original sledders hooked up sleds and large boards to the back of jeeps and Volkswagens. With most thoroughfares deserted, small cars and rugged jeeps had open invitations to slide around at their own will.
Those who had not become caught up in the wonder of the weather had a second and even more inviting chance when it began to snow heavily in the late evening hours. Austinites experienced a true and wondrous joy in seeing a glistening white world, so uncommon to the capitol city.
With a continuous snowfall throughout the night, the morning of Jan. 11 yielded to an even better opportunity to enjoy fully the unusual, yet delightful, weather. With little business in shopping centers and stores, most closed down or earlier than usual. Many employees couldn’t make it to work because of the conditions or having children home from school.
The 12th provided a final day of play for students in Travis County and surrounding counties. Although the glorious snow no longer fell, the remaining snow lingered throughout the afternoon and melted the following day. Streets cleared up and most stores reopened, although business was not at its usual height.
Austin’s three-inch snow, recorded now as the worst weather in Texas since 1918, gave Austinites a three-day vacation and dismissable from finals. For citizens throughout the state city, it provided a refreshing change and a sparkling excitement to daily routine.
Following the old saying of not being able to get “something for nothing,” Austin students will have to make up the lost days of December’s ice storm Feb. 19 and March 21, originally scheduled as “c-days.” Make up of the January days has not been announced yet.
This article was published in The Shield on Feb. 2, 1973.
