Jan. 14—Frozen food traded for firewood.

A chance meeting that has led to a long marriage.

The joy of snapping up a store's last generator in stock and "at the right (non-gouging) price."

Raccoons stumbling across the all-time jackpot of ice cream stashes.

Those are some of the memories that readers of the Watertown Daily Times have shared as they responded to a call for their recollections of The Great Ice Storm of 1998, Jan. 5-9.

The following are some icy vignettes shared by readers.

'Post Storm Blues'

—Carol Rose, Trout Lake.

"We lived in a big three-story Victorian home on Main Street in Canton, where I also had The FrameMaker picture framing business and gallery," Ms. Rose wrote. "We had never used the big old fireplace in the living room, but opened the flue and got it fired up during the ice storm. We had no wood though. Our neighbor and his wife didn't have much in their refrigerator to eat either. We had a freezer (that was thawing out) full of salmon, venison, shrimp, etc. We happily traded our frozen food for needed firewood! The neighbors were thankful, and so were we. At the time, we were packing our frozen food into the snow that remained to keep it as cold as possible. The temps were not all that cold — high 20s. So we had to use it up quickly."

Ms. Rose, who builds inlayed guitars with TracyCoxGuitars.com in Parishville, wrote a song about the ice storm shortly after its conclusion.

"We had a transistor radio and were lucky to tune into North Country Public Radio for updates," Ms. Rose wrote. "I remember Dr. Colleen Livingston (a local psychiatrist) was featured one day. She said when the storm effects subsided and life got back to normal, some folks would suffer from post storm syndrome ... no longer having to stock up wood, food, etc. during daylight hours. It made an impression on me. It was fun gathering necessities during the day, eating barbecued dinner by candlelight. How depressing to go back to normal! So I wrote 'The Post-Storm-Blues' to tell that story."

Among the song's lyrics:

"I was much happier when things were so much worse

When there were no lights and no heat

I was content dodging the policeman

To fill my kerosene can

I was happy as a victim could be"

And:

"Guess I have no choice but to face reality

There is life after the storm

I have to go back to work

Put up with the jerks

Telling me how they survived the ice storm

I kind of liked the pioneer life

Now I'm a momma with the post-storm blues"

'A guy named earl'

—Laurie A. Marr, Madrid

"I worked at St. Lawrence University (Canton) at the time, in the development office. I was single and bored and walked back to campus three days into the storm and asked for a 'job' to do," Ms. Marr wrote. "It was rather frantic there and I was hastily told I could go over to the field house and set up a shelter for 150 linemen from Detroit who would be arriving that night. I was told, 'A guy named Earl will meet you over there and you guys can figure out what you need.'

The guy named Earl' was the assistant director of facilities and at that time, worked nights. I worked days. We never would have met if not for the ice storm. He would become my husband and we had an 'ice storm-themed' wedding on the campus where we met.

Three years after the ice storm we were looking for a house to buy together — a first for both of us. We looked at many, many houses in St. Lawrence County until — through another freak coincidence — we ended up getting a farmhouse with a bunch of land in the town of Madrid. The only piece of furniture we negotiated to buy was an old roll top desk. Several months after moving in I was preparing to put stuff in the desk when I found, tucked way back in a corner, a commemorative ice storm glass that the Times had printed. The front page of the newspaper printed on the glass was the exact day that Earl and I met during the ice storm."

Happy raccoons

—Neal Burdick, Canton

"That storm showed us that sometimes, despite our complacency, our hubris, nature is still in charge of our lives. But it also showed us how we get back up on our feet when it knocks us down," Mr. Burdick wrote. "Who can forget the trees like frozen chandeliers, or the ominous tinkling of their branches in the wind, or their cracking and splitting and ripping as they crashed to the ground, pulling power lines down with them? Or the rows of cots in the St. Lawrence and SUNY Canton gyms. Or the National Guard and the swarms of power company trucks from a dozen states. Or cooking on our wood stoves. Or the Amish folks we met in mine-black stores, wondering what all the fuss was about."

He added, "We had two big metal tubs full of several gallons of Schwan's ice cream in our chest freezer, and when we lost power for what turned out to be eight days, we didn't want it to melt, so we put it out on our deck. One morning, I checked it, and something had pried the very tight lids off of both tubs and licked them clean, absolutely spotless. Our guess was that somewhere in the neighborhood there were a couple of raccoons who were VERY full of chocolate ice cream."

Good customers

—Ted and Phyllis Lawrence (McCarthy's Restaurant, Canton)

"My wife and I owned and operated a restaurant in Canton at the time, and were feeding the line crews repairing the grid," recalled Mr. Lawrence. "They made sure we were open to feed the crews, starting at 5:30 a.m. till 11:30 p.m. so all the workers could have a warm meal. One morning we were full of line crews and the power went out. We were cooking mostly with gas, but would have to close without ventilation and electricity. But, a line crew member said he would take care of it. He went outside into the parking lot, got a sledge hammer from a truck and walked over to the nearest utility pole and wailed on it with the hammer. The ice-coated pole shed the ice that was grounding out the power, and we were back in business!"

M. Lawrence shared another memory:

"About a week later when most people had power back, we were busy with diners wanting to get out of their house. It was starting to get dark and as normal for me, I started to dim the lights to enhance the mood, but, all I got was groans and oh no's. Customers thought the power was going out again. The customers wanted the lights on full as they said they had eaten too many meals by candlelight over the course of the ice storm."

generating interest

—David E. Gardner, Sackets Harbor

Mr. Gardner lived in Mannsville at the time of the storm. He recalled that on July 15, 1995 a microburst hit just west of the village of Mannsville (and other north country areas) where his house was located on Lilac Park Drive.

"We had no power for several days and no way to keep our freezer and refrigerator running," Mr. Gardner wrote. "I borrowed a small generator and ran extension cords into the house and plugged them in. Other family members were eager to borrow the same generator so we shared it on and off for several days. I remember thinking how inconvenient and dangerous to run power cords all through the house. Once the power was restored, I made a commitment to myself to be better prepared for future power outages. I already had a 220 circuit going out to my unattached garage so I purchased and installed an outlet and hooked it up to a 220 breaker! In the event there was another power outage, I would be ready to plug and play a generator. Unfortunately, I didn't purchase the generator or the cord needed to hook it up."

Mr. Gardner said he began career teaching at Watertown High School and job cuts forced a career change. When the ice storm hit, he was in Syracuse working at Niagara Mohawk headquarters.

"I received a call from my brother who worked for Niagara Mohawk in Watertown at the Rices Road facility," he recalled. "He called to warn me that soon, I would have no power in Mannsville and that I should stop on my way home to buy a generator. I took his advice and stopped at the Home Depot in Cicero. I got lucky. I was able to buy the last one they had and to their credit, they sold it to me at the correct price. Many stores were already price gouging and taking advantage of the high demand and low supply. I also purchased the cord and two male plugs that I would need to connect the generator to my power system. As soon as I got home, I made up the generator cord and plugged it in. To my relief, within 15 minutes, we had enough energy to run our lights, furnace and other essential equipment! I was prepared ahead of time because of the 'lessons learned' during the microburst! I was one of a very few residents who had power during the ice storm and as word spread, my phone began to ring off the hook."

His most noteworthy request came from a friend/retired administrator he had worked for and with at WHS.

"He called me late in the afternoon to see if I could help him hook a generator to his house in Watertown," Mr. Gardner recalled. "I said, 'Sure, no problem.' I warned him that generators were already in short supply in the north country, so he made some phone calls to check availability. He called me back late that evening and told me that he found a generator but it was in Albany. He decided to fly to Albany so he could rent a car and go pick up his generator and then drive home. He stopped at my house in Mannsville early the next morning to pick me up and we started out for Watertown."

About 2 miles north of Mannsville, they ran into a wall of ice, downed poles, wires and trees.

"The only picture I have of that scene is in my mind," Mr. Gardner wrote. "It was the worst devastation I had ever seen. I can remember thinking that there is no way Niagara Mohawk can survive this kind of damage. I was wrong! The crews were amazing and although it took time due to the adverse weather, they soon had things back up and running."

Mr. Gardner shared another vignette.

"A few days into the storm, I happened by a house on the outskirts of the village and noticed the homeowner prying the meter from the side of his house. I couldn't help myself, so I stopped by to inquire about why he was removing his meter and to warn him that Niagara Mohawk would not be happy about that and that it might well be illegal," he recalled. "His response made perfect sense. He had a generator to hook up to his house but it was an old farmhouse and there wasn't any way to disconnect his house from the street lines coming in. So, he either had to pull the meter or the generator would be feeding back onto the street lines. As I recall, my response was, 'Oh!' Then I asked him to call Niagara Mohawk to explain what he was doing and why. All worked out in the end."

'Old school and simple'

—Sarah L. (Griffith) Cartmill

When the ice storm hit, Ms. Cartmill was a college student at St. Bonaventure University, Cattaraugus County, and on semester break at her family's home in Brasher Falls. They lost power on the first night of the storm.

"It rained pretty steadily all night and froze," Ms. Cartmill said. "I remember my parents waking us up early and saying we lost power. Thankfully, we had a wood stove as a backup source, but it quickly became the primary source of heat. My mom would also cook on that."

The family was without power for about a week.

"We had people we knew who were without power for up to three weeks," Ms. Cartmill said. "We were kind of right in town. I think some of the power lines were easier to get to than other places. Some of those were way out in the woods on state land. I remember seeing National Guard Humvees around. I think they were going around restoring some of the power lines."

She added, "I remember how quiet it was. It was almost eerie because there was no street lights, no traffic."

At night, she heard ice-laden branches falling.

"The hum of generators was the only other thing we could hear," Ms. Cartmill said.

She also has fond memories of the storm.

"We had some neighbor friends who would come over during the day just for heat, food and to hang out," Ms. Cartmill said. "I remember it being like a lot of board games and listening to the radio. The AM radio was our only source of what was going on. It was living like a little more old school and simple."

Her return trip to college was also memorable.

"I remember seeing trees as far south as Watertown looking like it was clear cut."

the chill at the mill

—Robert C. DeLong, Black River

Mr. DeLong was working at the Champion International Paper Mill and lived outside the village of Brownville at the time of the storm.

"I was actually employed in the wood yard of the pulp mill side, 'across the river' in paper mill speak," Mr. DeLong wrote. "I was a heavy equipment operator, and most people probably didn't know this back then, the mill didn't loose power, or if it did, it wasn't for long. The mill, since it was such a high user of energy, was fed from a different system (because NiMo also lost huge if we weren't running) and also had hydro power generators that were sold to Niagara Mohawk decades earlier."

Mr. DeLong was one of the few workers that made it to work.

"I actually worked multiple 12/16 hours shifts," he recalled. "The mill had shut down production since they had no work force. But some of the functions like the boiler house and waste treatment couldn't stop. My job was security and just to keep the heavy equipment running. We had multiple cranes, front end loaders and other equipment that needed to be looked after. They were covered in ice and thankfully the crew had got all the crane booms down. We used small 3-pound sledge hammers and broke ice off the booms and other equipment for hours. I have no idea now how many hours I worked, but it was plenty."

He added, "My dad was still working for New York State Department of Transportation and he had hooked my house and his house up with small Honda generators to keep some lights and heat on."

Mr. DeLong's neighbor was a 10th Mountain Division helicopter pilot.

"He drove to Liverpool and bought a few kerosene heaters for my house and his," Mr. DeLong wrote. "My wife and I used plastic to enclose the kitchen and living room to consolidate the heat and while I wasn't there very much, she and the kids keep it all going. We actually had phone service the whole time the power was out, and pre-cellular. I was able to call from the paper mill and keep tabs. We later lost the phone for a couple weeks right after we got power back on."

Editor's note: More "ice storm memories" received by the Times will appear next Saturday.