Celebrating Winter? Enough Already!!!
Record snow, record low temperatures and a new term “poplar vortex” that only meterologists ever used, has even us native Detroiters anxious for temperatures just to get above freezing! For anyone who is new to this area, this has not been a normal winter. Unlike the residents of Atlanta, Georgia, a couple of inches of snow in Detroit is not a reason to panic. We do have to put up with some extra long drive time, but at least the traffic moves.
1951 Soph Snowball: L-R Rita Romanski, Ray LeBlanc & Madeline Knorr
During the more normal (?) winters, the sophomores at the University of Detroit held an annual Soph Snowball in November from about 1920′s to the 1950′s. Hundreds of couples would dress in formal wear and gather at a local hotel ballroom and dance the night away with, on some years, TWO orchestras. Sometimes part of the ticket price was donated to a local charity. You can read the details of the work that went into the Snowball in the Tower Yearbooks.
In March 1993 UDMercy had a Snow Person Contest. Unless we get a major warm-up in temperature, they could do this again!
I just wish Spring would hurry up and get here.
Pat Higo, Archives and Special Collections Librarian
