This story is excerpted from a workshop conducted in Rushville in August 2026 with Retta L. Kayton, Sandra Loosvelt, and JoAnna Drummond.

Retta L. Kayton:  I think one of the hardest things about living in a small town like Lynn or in the country is the in the winter time the snow. You do get snowed in, and you do get isolated, you know. But you get used to that, you know. It’ll be maybe weeks before you actually get into town.  

Sandra Loosvelt: I always kind of enjoyed that. Yeah, because it seems like if you’re snowed in, it’s king of a free pass.

Retta L. Kayton: If you didn’t have to go anywhere-

Sandra Loosvelt: Whatever, responsibility that you that you have. We used to when our kids were home and couldn’t go to school. We’d pop popcorn in the middle of the afternoon, and it was.

Retta L. Kayton: It seems like the blizzards were worse then. I mean, I remember them being tall drifts. I mean, tall as a house.

JoAnn Drummond: Oh no, I don’t think anything could have been worse than 22.

Jill Wiley White: Oh 

Retta L. Kayton: yes, yes, yes. 

JoAnn Drummond: We got 80 inches of snow down on the river.  

Retta L. Kayton :Yeah, there’s been there’s been worse winters than- 

Diana Dohrman: My brothers would play cards in the afternoon, and then whoever lost had to milk the cows. I was little enough. I didn’t.