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52 Ancestors-Week 51: Winter – Freak Snowstorm in Southern California on Virginia’s 5th Birthday

This is my third year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

My mother’s ancestors lived in the south. My father’s lived in Joliet, Illinois and in Hamilton and Anaconda, Montana. My immediate family has lived in California the past 75-100 years. Photos I have of family in Montana portray them in nice weather, probably in the summer. Of course, all of the photos of family in Texas and California also show nice weather, except this one.


 This photo shows my father’s older sister, Virginia Hork, on her fifth birthday, January 11, 1930. The family was living in Ontario, California. The three girls, Virginia’s older sister, Lorene, and younger sister, June, are building a snowman from the snow that had fallen in the area.  They managed to get quite a bit of snow together to make a three-part snowman.

As you can see from the photo, the way the girls are dressed, they were not used to snow and severe winter weather, though my grandmother did dress them in hats and gloves to help keep them warm. My dad, Billy, was not present, as he wouldn’t be born until April.

Newspaper account of the snowfall was in the Progress Bulletin. Pomona, which is just west of Ontario, had received one and one-half inches of rain and the first actual fall of snow with the city in many years.[1] It was part of a larger cold front that affected most of the West from Washington down to Southern California.


The family was living perhaps at 545 East E Street.[2] Google maps shows the house next door at 542 East E Street looking more like the house shown in the above photo.[3] That house has the stone decoration at the porch and the odd-shaped chimney made of stone. Of course, either the census taker got the address wrong, or the girls found better snow on the next-door neighbor’s lawn. No other record listed this address for them, as they moved often.

It must have been a fun birthday to have waken to snowfall and have enough to build a snowman.



[1] “Rain Due to Continue; Freak Snowfall,” The Pomona Progress Bulletin, 11 Jan 1930, p. 1.

[2] 1930 U.S. census, San Bernardino Co, California, pop. sched., Ontario City, ED 3b-41, sheet sht 13b, p. 182b, dwelling 380, family 453, William Hork; NARA T626, roll 188. This census was conducted on 1 April 1930.

[3] Google Map (https://bit.ly/3gREY3R), 545 East E St, Ontario, California, street view.



Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

  1. I used to teach at Vina Danks Jr. High in the 1960s. Your old home was in the school attendance area. I know the neighborhood well. I remember about an inch of snow on New Year's Day when my son was small - around 1989 or 1990. Not enough to build a snowman, though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looked like a nice neighborhood. I love the style of houses and the tree-lined streets.

      Delete

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