A34-lancastar Farming, Saturday, March 20 1993
Blizzard Keeps Milk Haulers
On The Road Day And Night
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
ON THE SNOWY BACK
ROADS NORTH OF PARADISE
(Lancaster Co.)—‘The first day of
spring is one thing. The first spring
day is another. The difference
between them is sometimes as
great as a month ”
Henry Van Dyke is credited with
this statement. But Art Erdman,
milk truck driver for Atlantic Dairy
from Leola, and every other milk
hauler on the East Coast would cer
tainly agree that the “Blizzard of
’93” last weekend didn’t seem
much like spring. With the tons and
tons of snow on rural roads from
Georgia to Maine, milk trucks
couldn’t get to dairy farms for reg
ular pick-ups. And with farm bulk
tanks bulging and overflowing
with several extra days of the “liq
uid health,” the bulk milk truck
driver became the most sought
after, the most prayed for, and the
most welcome person to arrive at
the farm.
For Erdman, the nightmare
began last Saturday when he
needed to leave home in the bliz
zard, breaking away from his nine
year-old son Nicholas, who cried
Caught on a corner.
Dogging It Through.
because he didn’t want his daddy to
go. On his usual round of pick-ups
on Amish farms, Erdman made it
through to almost the end of the
route before he got stuck in a far
mer’s lane
Driving Mack.
Anyone who knows Erdman,
knows he never puts chains on his
truck-in fifteen years of driving
milk truck, only one or two times at
most But he put chains on last
Saturday and finally worked his
way in and out of the remaining
farm lanes and started down Route
30 toward the Lehigh Valley plant
at Lansdale. The snow and 90 mile
per hour wind made visibility so
bad he missed the Coatesville by
pass and ended up in town, needing
a snow plow to get him back on the
right road again
(Turn to Pag* A 35)
* i
A welcome sight.
Ready To Roll.
Connected.
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