By Ione Skafte – Lethbridge, Alta.
I lived on a farm in Wrentham, Alta., south of Taber, as a child. One of our small community’s social highlights was the annual Christmas concert and dance, complete with a live band.
Mom and I decided we would get our hair done for the big event, so she took off work early and we headed for Taber, 30 minutes away. We’d also agreed we each should have a new girdle, so went into the Taber general store to buy them before we got our hair done. We were going to be the belles of the ball!
Neither of us noticed that it had started to snow while our hair was drying. Once we got outside, we knew we were in for bad weather. The sky was very dark. Hurrying to the car, we started out on the gravel road for home.
We’d not gotten far into the country when the blizzard hit with full force. It was snowing and blowing so hard, we had to put our heads out the window – each watching for the ditch on our side so we wouldn’t run off the road. But our hairdos!
Reaching into the backseat, we carefully pulled our girdles over our hair to protect our beautiful hairdos.
Crept the last two miles
Driving ever so slowly (with girdles on our heads), we barely saw the lights at Tudor’s farm house, which meant we still had to make another turn; but were almost home. We crept along the final two miles and almost cried with relief when we got to our yard. It was a horrible blizzard.
Our little dog greeted us and just then my brother pulled up. He and several friends had been out looking for us.
We’d been so busy earlier, we never even turned on the radio. The concert had been cancelled early in the day. All our effort to get a hairdo was for a Christmas concert that didn’t happen.
At least we were prepared with our girdles for when it did come the next week!
