The Great Veterans Day Blizzard in Minnesota

The memories of my family for this day are interesting. Both groups try to make it be not so important but when you listened to it you were impressed with the dangerous situation that they managed to avoid.

The Rudell’s
Grandpa (Albin) Rudell was the treasurer of his pipe fitters union in Minneapolis. He was began to realize the dangerous situation that was approaching the city. He knew there was one person (we don’t really know his name… my dad who was probably 5 at the time always called him Karl) who was in danger because of his heart condition. He was working in the new construction in North Minneapolis. His wife called and was frantic about “Karl” not being able or healthy enough to ride the street car home.

Albin along with his 15 year old son Allan got into their 1930’s truck. They put multiple bricks in the back to make sure they could make it through the snow. After several hours, they started their ride from 40th Avenue South to 40th Avenue North as the snow began to pile up. They arrived at the home where “Karl” was working. They told him that he needed to get into the truck to ride home with them. Allan said that “Karl” walked into the outside air and with a gasp fell over. The father and son tried desperately to figure out how to fix the situation. Albin said to Allan, “You are a boy scout, do something!” Allan said, “Dad, I think he’s dead. I don’t think I can do anything.”

The new North Memorial Hospital said it would be hours before an ambulance could get to the home to assist. They decided that they needed to leave “Karl” at the home rather than put him into the truck and maybe be able to make it home themselves. We don’t know the final result, but it was guessed that “Karl” didn’t survive the storm. It was always a mystery to know the reaction to the people who would come upon “Karl” in the living room of this new house at the end of the storm.

Grandpa Crocker (Bumps)
He worked in Hopkins just off of what is know as Highway 169 and Excelsior Blvd (3). The house he lived in was newly built in St Louis Park. He had three daughters and one under a year old living in the new house. He received a call from his wife that his furnace was not working. That would be very difficult for anyone especially small children going from almost 80 degrees to blistering cold in a matter of hours.

He got into his car and tried to drive home. This would have been an 8 minute drive today. Burton found that his car was bogged down in the snow about half of the way home. He was dressed for the morning that began as 80 degrees. Now he was struggling through swirling snow in a metropolitan setting. He abandoned his car and walked home in his dress shoes and suit. It took him many hours to get home. He tried to figure out what was wrong with the furnace. He was able to get it working for the moment. Burton was always very smart about the practical things in the house.

Both Burton and Albin were very smart in the engineering sense. They could see a problem and figure out how to fix it. The family tried to downplay the serious nature of the day for multiple reasons. The people of that time didn’t dramatize things very often. If we said we had an injury from falling on the side walk it was answered with “do you think we should cut it off?” or “it could be worse”. They were the people who really dealt with the tough stuff in life. We didn’t understand that until we were older… and maybe still don’t.