I was packing my bags, checking the strings on my J45 Gibson, made sure I had my stage boots, and getting ready to head out on the road. I had some shows in Texas Hill County around Bandera, and I was leaving a day early because it looked like the weather could get bad. Couldn't tell it now, at 4 O'Clock in the Afternoon. Shoot it had been up in the 40's most of the day, but it was starting to get a lot colder and looked like snow. I went in the house to get a bite to eat before I headed out, and fill my coffee thermos to keep me awake for the all night drive.
It had started snowing pretty hard by 5:30, was down in the twenties already, as I put the thermos in the passenger seat beside me, started the motor and let it warm up and melt
the snow that was collecting rapidly on the windshield. By the time I hit the edge of Nashville, the skies had opened up and it was snowing so hard you could hardly see to drive. I was driving my new '62 Pontiac Station Wagon, first brand new car I had ever owned, and it was a real road wagon. By the time i had traveled Interstate 40 as far as the Dickson Exit, the snow was a blizzard and it had dropped so cold it was hard to keep the windows from fogging. I slugged it on through to Memphis, and into Arkansas. About a 100 miles into Arkansas they had the Interstate blocked off and closed down to traffic because of the snow and jack knifing trucks. By now, the snow was about 8 inches deep, and the radio said they were expecting up to 14 inches of snow and ice in Arkansas and into Texas,
Ok, here is where the story starts, to show how the road warrior pickers were determined to go to shows, no matter what. Since they had the Interstate blocked I had to traverse Arkansas, parts of Louisiana, and on into to South Texas on the backroads in a blizzard. Not an easy task, in the South, because they have never been set up for this kind of weather like the Northern States. By this time it is after Midnight, not another car in sight, I had a full tank of gas, but nothing else in the way of survival gear if I get stuck out in the boon docks. That old Pontiac Stationwagon was bout like driving a tank through the snow drifts that were filling up the back roads, I had to hit them as fast as I could go to bust through them....I did that all night long, griping the wheel with a death grip, only reaching over occasionally to find the coffee cup and gulp a quick drink. The driving, swirling snow in the headlights became a long white tunnel as I smashed through the drifts in a battle against the elements that I thought would never end.
Finally, the next morning, it did end in the Louisiana bayous.
Getting to Bandera, Texas for the show that night in a great Texas Hill Country dancehall, I unloaded my stuff to go inside and as I passed in front of the car, I noticed for the first time that snow was packed solidly, through the grill, up into the engine compartment and completely covering the radiator, from where I had been busting through snow drifts in Arkansas. That explained why the car had started running a little hot for the last few miles. It took me about 30 minutes to clean it all out to where air could get to the engine comaprtment.
Back in Nashville, the temperature on my outdoor thermometer reached minus 15 degrees, with 7 inches of snow.
Winter travel for the singing hillbillies of the 50's-60's and 70's could get pretty hairy at times, but we always got there, in 50 years, I never once missed a show, through some of the worst conditions you can imagine. Only the love of the music, and the loyalty of the fans that awaited us, could drive a person to go on against such conditions. I have a special understanding for anyone who is a traveling person, truck drivers, salesmen, construction crews going to different jobs around the country....I know what it is like, and I wish you safe journeys this winter, go with God and come back safe. Merry Christmas. -Stan
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