A Small Snow

The most snow we've had yet this winter

We had a small snow last night. A thin layer of ice lay under the snow in some areas, and the roads were quite slick. Classes in the public schools were cancelled.

Isaac got up and drove to town for his classes at the Community College, and to his surprise (mine, too!), classes there were cancelled also. Freezing rain and more snow is predicted for tonight, so I imagine he will be checking his college e-mail for cancellations before he heads out tomorrow.

Currently, it's raining and the temperature is 33°. In the wee hours of the morning, it's expected that temps will drop below freezing and then we'll get the frozen precipitation that they're predicting.

Weather Pictures

Taken during yesterday's wind squalls

The grain elevators along Skyline Drive,
against a forboding sky


Clouds were scurrying across the sky,
driven by the strong winds.

Little River, full to the banks, near the bridge
on the Vaughn-Grove/Little River Road,
in Christian County, Kentucky.

Wind Storm in Hopkinsville, KY

A very windy day and not done yet.

Note: If you're seeking information about the February 5, 2008, tornado, please see "Tornado Damage at Crofton, KY, Tonight."

Bradford Square Mall after one of today's storms

After a day of strong wind-and-rain squalls, a fast-moving front with screaming winds blew through this evening.

Isaac called from his job in Hopkinsville to say that the power had gone out in the store for several minutes. As I talked to him, the wind arrived at our house. It roared tremendously for a long time; in fact, it sounded like a tornado to me at times.

That tempest has passed and the tornado watch has expired, but the gales have been continuing. We won't know until morning if damage has been done to our trees.

Here's a storm damage report from Weather Underground

01/29/2008 0622 PM
Hopkinsville, Christian County.

Thunderstorm wind damage, reported by Emergency Mngr.

Severe damage to local mall. Glass blown into building. Several injuries reported, the total is unknown at this time. Wind gusts estimated 60 to 70 mph. Tractor-trailer blown over along Interstate 24. Multiple power transformers blown.

01/29/2008 0620 PM
Pembroke, Christian County.

Thunderstorm wind damage, reported by Emergency Mngr.

Late report. Time estimated. 3 tractor-trailers blown over. One is a fuel tanker and is leaking fuel. Hazmat responding. Widespread tree damage reported from Crofton through Hopkinsville. Power lines down along Highway 41. Commercial building sign blown over.

As it happens, I photographed the mall this afternoon. A brilliant shaft of sunlight was illuminating the end of the mall and the puddles on the parking lot. The dazzling light lasted barely long enough for me to pull over and take the picture. I wonder if some of the west-facing windows in the photo are broken now.

I'm curious about the storm damage, but I'm concerned about Isaac getting home safely. I hope no trees or electric wires have blown over the roads he needs to travel, and I hope he can keep his little car on the road through the tremendous gusts of wind we are still getting.

UPDATE: Read more about tonight's wind storm in Hopkinsville on the Hoptown Hall Forum.

UPDATE: Isaac got home just fine. The windows in the mall that broke were just to the right of the photo, in the entrance between J.C. Penney and the former Dawahares store. I didn't take a tour of the storm damage around town when I went to work today, but I did see odd bits of storm wreckage lying around -- pieces of roofing, big chunks of broken signs, etc. An old barn along our route to town was blown down. The Kentucky New Era carried an article about the extensive damage throughout the area.

Electricity in the Home, 1942

Electricity applauded, 65 years ago

Did your parents or grandparents have electricity in their house by 1942? If they lived in a rural area, it's very likely that they did not. In 1939, just 25% of rural homes were electrified.

In this part of Kentucky, the Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative brought electricity to rural homes. Pennyrile Electric was organized in 1937, but out here, some of the old-timers reminisce that they didn't get electricity until the early 1950s. I don't know if that was because electricity wasn't available earlier, or because of reluctance in some families to install electricity.

In Decorating the Home, a 1942 interior-decorating textbook, Ethel Lewis writes about some of the latest electrical gadgets.

Electricity and light are so nearly synonymous today that some of the newest electrical devices can be listed here.

In addition to all the labor-saving equipment, there is the electric clock, the fan, and most of us depend upon electricity to run the radio and the automatic-change phonograph.

For the nursery there is the "seeing eye" which protects the crib and so warns of the approach of thieves or kidnappers.

The ray from the photoelectric cell is the unseen source which opens doors so miraculously as a person approaches.

Perhaps nothing appeals more to the mechanically minded than the automatic window closer which works so swiftly when the alarm sounds the hour for rising.

The control and use of electricity are certainly one of man's greatest achievements, and many a home is a better place in which to live because of it.

Let electricity work for you; let it help you to preserve your eyesight.

From Decorating the Home (p. 127) by Ethel Lewis. (Published in New York by the Macmillan Company in 1942.) The lamp images in this post are also from Decorating the Home.

Did you notice? The electric refrigerator, electric range, electric water heater, and electric clothes washer aren't even mentioned, though they totally changed women's lives. They're part of the "labor-saving equipment" that Lewis breezes over.

I must admit that I take them for granted also -- as long as my electrical appliances work, I don't give them the grateful appreciation that they deserve.

The Broadbent Building Near Cadiz, KY

German and Austrian POWs in Trigg County, Kentucky, during World War II

UPDATED February 13, 2008

We've been told by several people that this large building along Highway 68/80 east of Cadiz, KY, was built by German prisoners of war during World War II. The building's rounded corners are cited as evidence that the construction crew was German.

I assumed this to be true because I knew the government had programs that provided POW laborers to American farmers and other industries. With so many men gone to the war, America was desperate for laborers. Without support behind the lines, the war effort would fail.

I thought it likely that the prisoners came from Camp Campbell, just 20 miles southeast of the Broadbent Farm (or possibly from Camp Breckenridge, near Morganfield, KY.)

As it turns out, the story we heard and my speculations were partially correct, but several details were wrong. After I originally wrote this post, a Prairie Bluestem reader researched the story of the building with someone who remembered its construction. John wrote:

My dad says he remembers going down with the Broadbents to "Camp Campbell" and picking up those German soldiers. His dad also used German POW's on his farm. He did not remember [Mr.] Smith Jr. [Broadbent] using Germans to build the "seed house" as they called it. Mainly they worked in the fields. Most of the POW's were farmers back home and were glad to work instead of being in the stockades. They weren't allowed to pay them much; they mostly paid them in cigarettes and fed them really well. The Germans may have had something to do with the construction, but my dad didn't think they did.

John's father checked with some of the Broadbent family, and this week, John wrote again:

I finally got the scoop on the old seed house. It was built by 19 WWII POWS. They weren't German though. They were Austrian. [Mr.] Smith Jr. [Broadbent] went to Camp Campbell and picked up 40 originally, and kept 20 to work on the building. All were working out except for one of them. He happened to be the only German among those 19 Austrians, so I am sure there was a conflict there. As for the architects, they were out of Des Moines, IA. So it was definitely built by POW's, just of the Austrian persuasion rather than German.

The sign over the building's door says "Broadbent's B&B Food Products." Apparently the building was once used in the production of Broadbent Farm's famous, prize-winning hams, sausage, and bacon. Broadbent Hams was sold to new owners in 1999, but I don't think this building was included in the deal.

In our family, this building is associated forever with an unfortunate highway breakdown. A couple years after we moved here, we were coming home from a long trip to Missouri and Kansas. When we turned off I-24 onto Highway 68/80, our little VW Fox lost its ability to change gears. You can't go anywhere when your car is stuck in neutral!

We had to push the Fox off the highway into the parking lot of the old Broadbent building. Then we called our pastor. He is a kind soul; he came in his van, armed with automotive fluids and tools. When the breakdown proved too serious for a roadside remedy, he drove us home. It was a bad ending to a long, hard day of driving and a long week of traveling.

When I showed these photos to Isaac, he immediately identified it as the place where we pushed the Fox off the highway. As an afterthought, he mentioned that it was built by POWs.

UPDATED December 5, 2018
Continental Drone Aerial Photography's video on Facebook about the Broadbent Seed House

 

Interesting links:
German POWS in North America
German POWs in Alabama
Story of a German artist and sculptor who was a POW at Camp Breckenridge