64 ForOregonState.org/Stater OUR COMMUNITY OSU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES B A C K S T O R Y THE BIG SNOW THE WEATHER OUTSIDE WAS FRIGHTFUL, BUT IN 1969, STUDENTS FOUND IT (MOSTLY) DELIGHTFUL. By Kevin Miller, ’78 In J nu ry 1969, 24 inches o snow ell on Corv llis, fin lly closing c mpus on Mond y, J n. 30. There w s no Tuesd y edition o the Daily Barometer, but the ront p ge o Wednesd y’s issue bore the he dline “Snow Forces 1st Closure In 50 Ye rs.” “Students c vorted on the c mpus much o Mond y, eng ging in stupendous snowb ll fights nd cre ting snow sculptures,” the Baro reported. “A minor discord nt note occurred when Je erson W y w s tempor rily blocked by huge snowb lls rolled into the street.” One student took the opportunity o resh l yer o white to express their eelings in big w y, writing, “Glynis Dickey, I love you” in huge letters cross the b seb ll ield ble chers. Thursd y’s edition e tured photo o sculpted snow r bbit under truly l bored pun on “plenty o snow” — “‘Bunny’ O Snow” — but then somberly bl med the white stu nd the Mond ywithout cl sses or n outbre k o broken bones t the Student He lth Center, n uptick in on-c mpus skiing ccidents nd r sh o v nd lism th t le t t le st 50 windows broken by snowb lls. An editori l in the issue ple ded or r in, noting th t students were “r pidly tiring o h rd lls nd h rder snowb lls.” A letter writer compl ined th t m r uding snowb llers h d sc red his children s he drove p st c mpus. He even cited the beh vior s proo th t 18-ye rolds l cked the udgement to be llowed to vote. (As it turned out, the snowb ll rgument w s not persu sive enough to keep the n tion rom r ti ying the 26th Amendment to the Constitution in 1971, lowering the voting ge to 18.) By Frid y, the snow w s crisis. C mpus doctor J.K. G rvey w rned o eye in uries c used by ice b lls m de with slushy snow. “Snow Continues To Men ce C mpus,” shouted ront-p ge he dline. nder photo o the M Qu d with no snow, the Baro lliter tively ssured students th t “the llen ollicles o rozen w ter nd the seemingly orever rozen F hrenheit will soon be gone in lieu o , th t’s right, r in.” The editori l st c me out firmly in vor o more s nd on sidew lks. And in piece he dlined “Birds H ve Di culties,” writer urged students to h ve some comp ssion nd perspective: “So, while you’re m king th t rel- tively short (gr nted, h z rdous) w lk to cl ss nd wishing it would snow some more so they c n close school g in, count your blessings (i.e., ckets, gloves, knee socks, electric bl nkets, etc.) nd consider those little cre tures sitting in the trees with their e thers ru ed g inst the cold. They h ve to live in the cold; you ust h ve to w lk in it.” ↑ Climate experts say an El Niño winter will likely bring drier and warmer weather than normal to the Pacific Northwest this winter, but in 1969, there was “The Big Snow.” HINGE SCORE / SIDE GLUE
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