Having served as Chokio’s longtime postmaster, Jim McNally had no trouble recalling names when recounting his memories of the Chokio Bus Rescue of 1967. He even remembered the interviewer, how many siblings she has, and other details from her family’s relatively short residence in Chokio. When talking of the rescue crew, he was careful to add, “Your Dad (Larry Stillwell) was there.”
Jim recalls the morning of the surprise blizzard.
“It started out mild, but then the temperature went down bad. The snow was coming down in balls,” Jim said. “The superintendent decided we must get the children home.”
Jim remembers that John Berlinger’s bus-full of children spent the night at the Floyd and Dorothy Zimmerman home, but Clayton Kolling’s bus went into the ditch three miles south of town.
Jim recalls how the men in town gathered to outfit the rescue caravan.
“With a storm, a gas engine couldn’t keep up. I was in the Federated telephone truck, and that was a diesel,” Jim said.
The (stranded) school bus had no heat, and it was getting pretty cold. They weren’t (all) dressed warmly. We helped get them out and into the (rescue) bus,” Jim recalled.
Jim recalls the morning of the surprise blizzard.
“It started out mild, but then the temperature went down bad. The snow was coming down in balls,” Jim said. “The superintendent decided we must get the children home.”
Jim remembers that John Berlinger’s bus-full of children spent the night at the Floyd and Dorothy Zimmerman home, but Clayton Kolling’s bus went into the ditch three miles south of town.
Jim recalls how the men in town gathered to outfit the rescue caravan.
“With a storm, a gas engine couldn’t keep up. I was in the Federated telephone truck, and that was a diesel,” Jim said.
The (stranded) school bus had no heat, and it was getting pretty cold. They weren’t (all) dressed warmly. We helped get them out and into the (rescue) bus,” Jim recalled.
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