The Big Freeze
From James Donahue’s Journal
One winter when our daughter Jennifer was attending junior college and living in a low-cost apartment in downtown Saginaw, the state was hit with one of the worst and longest cold snaps that I can ever recall. The thermometer dropped to something like minus 30-40 degrees below zero and stayed there for days.
Jennifer called to say the car she was then driving, an older compact Chevrolet, would not start and she could not get to class at Saginaw Valley Community College, located in a rural area between Saginaw and Bay City. My car, a full-sized Chevrolet Celebrity which we purchased to replace the car lost in the above incident, wouldn’t start either, even though I had been keeping a light bulb turned on at the end of an extension cord and positioned under the engine.
We had one alternative. That was a late model Mitsubishi that Doris was driving to work. That car started right up. I took my set of jumper cables and drove that cold trip to Saginaw. We dug Jennifer’s car out of the snow and ice, popped her hood, hooked up the cables and let it charge. When she attempted to start the engine nothing happened. I sprayed the carburetor with some stuff I bought that was supposed to help get cars started even in the coldest weather. This time when she hit the starter there was a cough, the car backfired, and suddenly the engine was on fire.
We put the fire out with snow and called a wrecker. They took the car to a nearby garage where the car was thawed out and the burned wiring replaced. They got the car running by the next day, when the temperature was moderating a little, and Jennifer was able to get back to school.
My Celebrity remained frozen where it was parked for another few weeks until we had a thaw. Once it warmed above freezing, the car started and ran just fine.
From James Donahue’s Journal
One winter when our daughter Jennifer was attending junior college and living in a low-cost apartment in downtown Saginaw, the state was hit with one of the worst and longest cold snaps that I can ever recall. The thermometer dropped to something like minus 30-40 degrees below zero and stayed there for days.
Jennifer called to say the car she was then driving, an older compact Chevrolet, would not start and she could not get to class at Saginaw Valley Community College, located in a rural area between Saginaw and Bay City. My car, a full-sized Chevrolet Celebrity which we purchased to replace the car lost in the above incident, wouldn’t start either, even though I had been keeping a light bulb turned on at the end of an extension cord and positioned under the engine.
We had one alternative. That was a late model Mitsubishi that Doris was driving to work. That car started right up. I took my set of jumper cables and drove that cold trip to Saginaw. We dug Jennifer’s car out of the snow and ice, popped her hood, hooked up the cables and let it charge. When she attempted to start the engine nothing happened. I sprayed the carburetor with some stuff I bought that was supposed to help get cars started even in the coldest weather. This time when she hit the starter there was a cough, the car backfired, and suddenly the engine was on fire.
We put the fire out with snow and called a wrecker. They took the car to a nearby garage where the car was thawed out and the burned wiring replaced. They got the car running by the next day, when the temperature was moderating a little, and Jennifer was able to get back to school.
My Celebrity remained frozen where it was parked for another few weeks until we had a thaw. Once it warmed above freezing, the car started and ran just fine.