Blizzard of '78 Memories?

[tigercat]

I remember that year as well. I was at home alone with my 2 little girls. My 2nd dd was 7 1/2 months old. I had to fall out of the front window after putting both girls in their cribs so that I could dig our front door out. Both front and back doors were so filled with snow they couldn't be opened. My dh was stranded out east because of the snow and my db & dsil (who lived with us as well) were stranded out of town as well. I didn't have a car and was very young (21) and scared. When I got back into the house after shoveling the front door opened I ran to check my 2 dds and found my 2nd dd standing up in her crib for the first time. She was looking down the hall calling me. They were okay and not crying but boy was I scared.
tigercat

 

[figmentvi]

Oh my......25 years already?????

I remember it very well. Holly(sydally9367 here on the DIS) was 2 and we were living at my Mom's in Whitman, Ma. Both my Dad and my husband had passed away the year before, so Holly and I were living with my Mom to kind of help each other out.

I'll never forget waking up that morning and seeing snow drifts up to the eaves of the house. We couldn't get out the doors and had to shovel snow and dump it into the tub just to get out.

Of course, there was a ban on driving. So, I mounted a wooden crate on a sled and packed Holly up in it and then walked to all of the neighbors houses to see if they needed any emergency supplies. Holly was quite thrilled with her sled ride each day. Everyday I was the milk lady, bread lady, diaper lady, and when the post office opened, the mail lady.

It was an incredible experience. It was one of those natural disaster type things that pulls everybody together.

Sadly, I did have some friends in Scituate, Marshfield and Plymouth that had their homes washed out to sea.

After about a month we were all so sick of snow and winter, that I decided to pack up Mom, Holly, my MIL and my Aunt and we drove to WDW for the first time !!!!

So I guess it was the Blizzard of '78 that made me the Disney geek that I am today.

 

[TLinden16]

I was six years old back in 1978. I remember going out to shovel one night with my sister (actually she shovelled, I played in the snow). It had to be a Tuesday night, because I remember we went out after Happy Days ended, and Happy Days was on Tuesday nights.

I have many relatives on my street, and we had a huge block party. My dad collected a buck a person, and walked down to the supermarket with my red plastic sled. My uncle grilled burgers and hot dogs on a half barrell grill. There must have been close to 50 people there.

I live across the street from a school, and there were huge snow mounds. My sisters and my cousins brought out lounge chairs and tried to set them up on the snow mounds. I have vivid memories of those lounge chairs tipping over.

Somewhere, there is a picture of me in a red snowsuit with a fur collar, white sunglasses, eating a hot dog.

Karen

 

[ryanpatricksmom]

I was a college freshman in New Haven, CT. The governor prohibited driving for several days in a row. My most vivid memory is of the weird meals that we were served in the dorm as the cafeteria began to run out of food. The liquor store was within walking distance, so it was all good.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

Third year college for me.

 

[Teejay32]

I was 7. My little brother was born later that Feb. and I remember the neighbors all stopping in to check on my Mom. They had a snowmobile ready to go in case of emergency.

Actually that's what I remember best - neighbors. We were living in a housing project, mostly with others veterans and their families. Tons of little kids there. The parents walked to the convenience store and towed us along on sleds...they built snow 'mountains' under the basketball hoops so we could climb up and sit in the hoops....the buildings were close together, duplexes, so us kids dug connecting tunnels between our back doors. (Think of an ant farm. ) Sledding...you could sled out your bedroom window and over your Dad's car if you wanted to. (Nobody let us.)

I don't remember ever actually going in the house that week, so I have no idea what the grown-ups did.

 

[December99]

I don't remember that one but I do remember one a couple of years before that that we had here in Illinois...since most of the kids in our school were country kids the roads were so bad they were finding houses for the kids to stay until their parents could get in town to get them because they wouldn't let the busses out of town. We had 4 or 5 kids at our house that stayed with us. The most fun thing to do when we were little was scooting down the stairs on our behinds. So after dinner we had done that for a very long time - well needless to say, later in the night, as I was laying on the floor next to my bed so that someone could sleep in my bed - my friend leaned over and puked all over me!!!!! My mom and dad kept saying it was because we scooted soo much....I know now that was not the reason.

But as far as '78 goes I don't remember a whole lot of that one except we had just been in our new house for a couple of months and we were so thrilled with how big the snow had piled. As I was going through my moms pictures I found those pics of us outside playing and all the snow around our house.....

 

[Towncrier]

I quite honestly have no recollection of the blizzard of 78. I had finally managed to graduate from college and I had my first "real" job and apartment. I guess that I was too focused on work to realize that the weather was so bad. About the only thing that I remember is that road crews were having a heck of a time keeping the bridges plowed. They had to bring in front-end loaders to scoop the snow off the bridges because the plows wouldn't work anymore.

 

[goofy4tink]

Two things stand out for me...1. We lost my then 5 y/o son in the snow!! We dressed him and he took off like a shot, out into the yard and it was so deep we couldn't find him. Well...we did eventually. And 2. My dad had one of the early Renault's. He was the only person in our neighborhood who could get around, so he went from house to house, taking milk and bread orders!!
Hey SplshMt99....I had forgotten the militia being out. We were concerned they would get my father, until we realized they weren't going to be in our little town. BTW..my sil's mother used to teach in Blackstone. THat's where sil grew up. Small world.

 

[nativetxn]

We had 18 inches of snow in something like 12 hours. We couldn't find our Volkswagon in the parking lot. The first and last real blizzard I've ever seen. I understand it was even worse in states further east.

My husband cross country skied to Meijers to get chicken breasts and milk, we were doing weight watchers at the time. I think he really did it because it was fun

 

[mickeyfan29]

I was 6 at the time.... My brother and I were outside playing as my dad was shoveling.... After a while, my mom wanted my brother and I to come inside because she was afraid the snow was getting too deep. Well, I got stuck in the snow and my dad and a neighbor had to pull me out and carried me inside because I lost my boots. My boots were lost and not found until the snow melted.

 

[zurgswife]

I was stuck at a local Ski resort for an extra day or two....it was the best skiing EVER...on the EAST COAST.....I'll never forget the great skiing that week....


But going home I had to walk about 1/2 mile to my house dragging my suitcase along the top of the snow.....the car wouldn't get down the street cause it hadn't been plowed

 

[melindaandrob]

Wasn't this the blizzard of '77? and this the 26th year? I don't remember a blizzard in '78

http://www.whitedeath.com/

 

[honeywolf7]

I have no idea if it affected Colorado which is where I lived when I was that young. I don't remember it LOL

 

[debster812]

I was 12. We lived on the South Shore of Mass, and were hit HARD. My dad was a firefighter at the time, and I remember that he could not come home to stay for at least a week. But, we also got all the supplies that we and our neighbors needed, because my dad could travel. We also housed a family of 4 living in our family room and dining room, as their house fell into the ocean. (They lived in Hull, and were one of the first families my Dad helped to evacuate, and he just brought them home!)

No school for weeks, and we built amazing sled tracks in the hills behind our houses. Kind of like amatuer bobsled runs.

 

[BrerMom]

We only had to go to school one day in January and missed some days of February, too. My dad's factory was even closed for two weeks - a good thing because he couldn't have driven to town, anyway. I was young enough - 6th grade - that I don't know whether he got paid or not. I doubt it.

There was no mail delivery and no noise because there weren't any cars going down the road - for WEEKS. My cousin had one of the few four-wheel drives back then. At the end of January, he went house to house selling bread and milk.

I have very fond memories of that month. My pre-school sister and I weren't allowed outside because it was too cold and the snow was too deep. We played more games, worked more puzzles, and read more books that winter than any other period during my childhood. It would be interesting to hear my mom's memories, though. I bet we drove her crazy!

As a humorous sidenote, when we moved to this house and our friends were moving many boxes of canned goods, one of them looked at me with this really strange look on his face and said, "Have you lived through a blizzard?"

 

[bsnyder]

Not sure if it was part of the same storm, but it actually snowed here in Tampa then! No drifts, mind you , but there was snow on the ground!

I was a senior in high school, and they couldn't keep is in class that morning. We went to a nearby golf course and ran around like crazy, having snowbal fights and making snow angels.

Here's a picture, from the Tribune: (wierd looking with the palm trees in the background, huh?)

 

[Kim in TN]

I was just talking about the blizzard to a coworker the other day, not realizing the anniversary was approaching...
I was 5, and I remember Dad crawling out my bedroom window so he could shovel the snow from around the doors, and I remember the awesome mazes he built in the front yard and how they seemed to stay forever before they completly melted away.
I also remember Mom worrying out us making it to the store for much needed items and it was almost directly across the street...very close.

 

[goofygirl]

We got about 18inches or maybe more. I was only 9 years old, and the snow was almost up to my neck. We had dogs at the time, and had to dig a path for them in the yard so they could go out and "do their thing" comfortably, since the snow was higher than them.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Did the East Coast get one later? Our 25th anniversary was Jan. 26th here in NW Ohio.
I was in 9th grade. Dad was out of town and sister was a freshman at BGSU so it was just me and my mom.
We were out of school Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday--and this is a school district that NEVER closes! I remember on Thursday night I shoveled a path from our front porch to the sidewalk--and the next day it was GONE! I gave up shoveling until the wind died down!!
My mom actually fell off of our flat roof we had on our one-story family room shoveling the snow off--the neighbor saw her sail by the window! She was fine though.
Dad didn't get home until late Saturday because of delays. My sister was in a dorm full of girls with NO WATER for 2 days! They were flushing toilets with snow they got from outside!
DH lived in a Dayton suburb--my MIL tells me that they had just purchased a side of beef the week before and lost power--so they had a monster barbecue for all of the neighborhood!
Robin M.