What are you missing on a snowy day after the plows have sanded and salted the roadways until they are mostly bare and you can see the pavement? If you were a lad living in Bedford around the late 1800s, early 1900s, and a foot or two of snow had fallen overnight, you would rejoice because you could earn some precious pocket money. School would be closed for a couple of days, the men of the town would get out the big snow rollers, hitch up a team of 4 to 6 horses for packing down the snow, and make the roads suitable for horse and wagon travel.

Heavy rocks were often piled into a box on the rear of the sled for extra weight in packing a very deep snowfall. This was called “breaking the road”. Two drum-like rollers, resembling slatted barrels, were fastened together and dragged by the horses over the snow, often more than once, until it was firmly packed.

As the men gather their teams, they meet at neighbors’ houses until enough men and horses are assembled to make up a six-horse hitch. A boy’s job was to help shovel through the heavier drifts and to knock the balls of snow from the hooves of the horses. A dollar for nine hours' work was big pay, and boys delighted in it.

At a farm, the roller would often make a circle around the yard, and the women and girls would bring out hot coffee, donuts, and cookies. If you timed the work carefully, the lady who made the best food in town was visited around noontime, so that you filled your lunchpail with her delicious food, which would last well into the afternoon.

The hard-packed snow provided a solid surface to assist the well-shod horses, pulling the open carriages for families off to church or visiting friends on a frosty day. Tucked in with carriage robes, muffled in woolen scarves, hats, and mittens, the sleigh bells jingle in tune with the speed of the horses. The open carriages and most especially sleighs could be remarkably quiet, gliding over the snow and ice. Sleigh bells were added to a horse’s leather harness so that an approaching sleigh could be heard by both pedestrians and other sleighs.

If you can find an old road, little traveled— walk or snowshoe on a quiet winter day, and you may hear the old sleigh bells in the distance. Just listen.

To see one of Bedford's old snow rollers, the Bedford Historical Society has one stored, and we’ll happily show it to you. You may appreciate the efficiency of today's plows and gritting vehicles, but we’ve also lost something. There was much to appreciate in the simplicity of earlier times. Like so much of Bedford’s agrarian past, “rolling the snow” required residents to come together, pool their resources in both time and equipment, to get a job done for the benefit of the co