Iowa State: The Ice Blizzard, Thanksgiving, 1985

My first semester at Iowa State was “interesting” though along the way, I met/became friends with the guys in Westgate on Foster. There was a rare event that happened that first semester. It was right after Thanksgiving. For the first time in more than a decade, Iowa State cancelled a day of classes.

Thanksgiving had been good at home but the weather was turning, so that on Saturday, it became obvious there was going to be a nasty ice storm hitting the whole state/region and at dawn on Sunday, everything was ice. No way, no how was my Mom or stepfather or my dad going to get me safely back to Ames. That led to another difficulty–because on Monday, those two men had to work and my mom had her own classes she had to go to.

Monday’s classes were cancelled by Iowa State, making that the day people would try and get back there. Unfortunately, the ice and snow were bad enough, the roads remained a nightmare (and like I said, I had no parents able to drive anyways)

Into the breach stepped Dave Pieart’s parents. They offered to get people back to school in their van. This wasn’t just Dave, it wasn’t just me; it included Evan and Jeff from Haber, Paul E. who was going to be dropped off at Satan’s University in Iowa City, and Dave’s uncle who needed to return to Des Moines (also en route to Ames).

With the 55mph speed limit, the QC-to-Ames drive should’ve been about 3-3.5 hours, call it 4 with dropping people off. I was the last person picked up (everyone else was in Bettendorf). The van was crammed–not just with the people but all the college students had books, clothes, etc. We left Davenport at about 730am.

Most of the drive was spent in silence–that let Dave’s dad focus on driving because the interstate was a skating rink. I know we stopped in Brooklyn at a truck stop that has since shut down. I don’t remember dropping Paul or Dave’s uncle off….really, the long day’s nothingness–the alternating heat from the heater and the cold/wind coming in through windows/seals wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, either.

That 3.5 hour drive? Nah–we got to Ames around 7-8pm, twelve hours later. We’d basically averaged 15-20mph the entire trip. Oof.

And then? Iowa State decided Tuesday classes would be cancelled as well because half the students still hadn’t made it back to campus. It’s POSSIBLE classes were held–there’s a fuzzy bit of my memory that is telling me classes were ‘optional’ on TUE.

I could never imagine ever having to drive through the aftermath of a storm like that. What a total Hell that was. I should’ve known better than think like that…because eventually karma/fate will get back to you for a laugh… (look for Blizzard #3 in December, 2023)