The journal owner remembers the bad weather and good people.

February 28, 2009 at 12:09a.m.

Many are waiting FOR the chill over the Mahoning Valley to come to an end, but one man has found a stark reminder of how severe the winter weather actually can be.

Raymond and Carley O’Neill, who now live in Vienna, sifted through the aged pages of a black and white notebook that served as the journal of Effie Goist, Raymond’s grandmother.

The outside of the journal only read “1950 Effie Goist,” but part way through the pages of the journal detailing Goist’s life on a farm in Liberty, the O’Neills found her depiction of the “big snow” that ravaged the area during the holiday season of 1950.

The day after Thanksgiving 1950 still has the area’s record for the most snowfall recorded in a 24-hour period with 20.7 inches. Youngstown set a record for snowiest season in 2008.

According to Goist’s journal, the snow fell heavily all day Nov. 24, 1950, while she sat by a nearby window crocheting. By the next day, the area had been brought to a standstill with the snow having covered a milk stand outside the window and still falling.

Raymond O’Neill remembers the milk stand of which Goist speaks to be about 2 1‚Ñ2 feet high. He said it was completely covered and more by the time the last flake hit the ground.

O’Neill, a lover of most things historic and member of the Girard Historical Society, said reading the account of the snowfall shows how bad a winter storm can truly be and how different life and people have become.

Goist explains her frustration with O’Neill, known as Butch in those days, expressing juvenile jubilance indoors during the storm and the rest of the family also being trapped indoors for several days on end. O’Neill said being trapped indoors at that time was different because there was no Internet or television, just family time.

“We made our own grape juice and ate popcorn every night in front of the radio. It was a different life, a good life, a quiet life,” O’Neill recalled.

Goist’s journal entries show how much the more than 3 feet of snow interrupted that quiet life with a nine-day description of the family’s activities until the snow began to melt. She laid out the frustrations of not receiving mail, dealing with a furnace that shut down and checking on neighbors and friends.

O’Neill said the journal brings back memories of more than just bad weather and the hardships it can bring. The journal also shows how people in the area banded together to help one another during the snowfall.

Goist details how most roads were still impassable three days into the snowfall, but some men ventured out on a tractor for a dairy run. More than 30 men from Shannon Road also fashioned a plow from an old tractor and some scrap metal.

“At first they were trying to plow the road with a street grader, but the grader got stuck in a ditch so they used this makeshift snowplow. I wasn’t allowed to ride, so I watched them do it,” O’Neill remembers.

In all, O’Neill said the “big snow” provides some pleasant memories for a man who was just a boy when it took place. The sense of community, however, did not end after the snow.

O’Neill remembers neighbors borrowing, bartering and mending fences together without always demanding compensation. He said helping your neighbor was just a part of life.

jgoodwin@vindy.com