Legacy

It was 1947 and World War II had been over for a couple of years and things were starting to get back to normal.  During the war gasoline and tires were rationed and people’s normal activities had been in some cases simply eliminated.  However they were now coming back as rationing was over.

One of those activities was High School Basketball teams were now able to play other high schools as transportation was available again.  The Grizzlies, the team from Bronson High in Denver, Colorado had played Silver Hawks, a team in Boulder, Colorado.

They were headed back to Denver after having a win and their spirits were high.  It was about an eighty mile trip that went up and through a mountain pass.  Usually there were no problems even in the winter as the plows were quick and efficient in keeping those mountain roads open.  What no one had anticipated was that half way back there was a sudden un forecast blizzard.  It was night and snow was so heavy the driver, Ken Swenson couldn’t see five feet ahead.

Ken had slowed his speed to a five mile crawl, yet visibility was so bad he missed a curve and the bus carrying the entire basketball team and cheerleaders went down a fairly steep embankment  crashing through some small trees before coming to a rest on its passenger side.  That of course blocked the normal door for loading and off loading.

Fortunately the rear emergency exit was usable.  Needless to say everyone was pretty shook up and there was bruising and minor scrapes.  No broken bones or other serious injuries.  Ken was glad for that.  However, it was night and not a good time to go out to try and figure where you were.  Temperatures were dropping fast and keeping warm enough not to freeze was a concern.  Luckily none of the glass in the bus broke, so the wind chill factor was blocked and body heat would help.  But that wouldn’t be sufficient for very long.

Now Ken the driver was a vet and pretty savvy about making do with not much except for imagination and a few odd resources.

Ken had a couple of the guys open up the floor panel the spare tire was kept under, except now it wasn’t flat, it was vertical.  Still they opened it and removed the tire.  Ken had them toss it out the back door.

Then Ken told three more guys, the ones with the heaviest coats, to go out and scout about and find as much dead wood as they could.  If it was to long, break it into shorter pieces, even if that meant sticking one end under the bus for leverage.  That they did and in about a half an hour they had enough to fill the equivalent of two back seats; that is if the seats had been horizontal instead of vertical from the bus being on it side.  Anyway, a good supply of wood.

Ken said he would bank the wood into the space the spare tire had occupied and start a fire.  That got a couple of quick you can’t do that sir, you could explode the gas tank from the heat.  Ken said not to worry, the gas tank is just forward of the rear axle and this bus sticks out ten feet to the rear of that axle, and there are no gas lines in this rear area either.

Then another naysayer piped up and said, but sir we will suffocate from the smoke.  Ken said do you all remember how an Indian Tee Pee works?  They build their fires in the middle and the heat and smoke go right up and out that little flap at the top.  We will get a similar effect here by opening the window above the fire area about half way.  It’s not a perfect alignment for smoke dissipation, but it should suffice.  The rear of the bus will probably get some billowing build up of smoke, but still the draw will take it out and it won’t spread to the rest of the bus.  Also I will crack a front window just about an inch.  That will inure fresh air to breathe and keep the draw for smoke dissipation working.

One more thing Ken said, once we get the fire going we don’t want to loose any heat if we can avoid it.  So anyone that’s got to go, now is the time, out the emergency exit door to the left for you boys and to the right for you girls.  Sorry we don’t carry any TP, but I assure you that later you will still be washable.  That got a few laughs and lightened the spirit a bit.  Several took the opportunity.

Well it was a long night, a lot of singing and story telling went on to pass time and help mask the fact every one was really scared about the whole situation.  Finally everyone was able to get some sleep, if for no reason other than sheer exhaustion.  It was emotionally a long anxious night.

The morning and daylight finally came and everyone could see it had stopped snowing.  A quick check of how much was built up on the bus showed it had snowed about fourteen inches, which is not all that much for a mountain area.  Ken figured that by now that they had been missed and searchers would be out as well as the snow plows; so they should get spotted.

About fifteen minutes later, They heard voices from up where they had slid off the road.  Someone was saying, there they are down there.  A member of the rescue team slid down on his backside and shouted into the bus that people with ropes would have a number of rescue lines down in just a few minutes.  A few minutes later everyone was on their way back up the slope to a waiting bunch of vans.  There was coffee and hot cocoa to warm them up.

One of the rescue workers said to Ken, considering the amount of snow that had covered most of the bus we wouldn’t have spotted you if it wasn’t for that big column of smoke.  That was as good as a big red flag marking the spot.

The story of how the column of smoke came into place to start with was told many times over in the next few days.  If Ken had gotten any more pats on the back, he’d probably have shown bruises for all that patting.

After all that hub bub settled down, someone actually thought to ask the important question.  Who won the game?