Mom reminded me that today marks 30 years since the Great Blizzard of 1978. I’d just turned 11. I don’t remember much of it, except that there was a lot of snow, and we got out of school for quite a few days in a row. We had fun, and I was utterly oblivious to the fact that the storm was killing people.
Photo by Sister72
I found this photo on Flickr. It was taken in Boston but that’s pretty much what it looked like in Indiana.
Of course the first thing that goes through a New Orleanian’s mind upon seeing a picture like that is a familiar question we have become used to hearing ourselves in light of the storm…
“Why in the hell would someone want to live in a place like that?”
We had snow once (or maybe twice) back in 72 or 73 that actually accumulated to a couple of inches and stayed on the ground for more than one day. And I hear tales of the Christmas of 1989. And of course, it didnt’ stay around but Christmas 2004 saw snow.
Nothing like living in a place where you can be buried in snow…
Lots of coverage up here in Indiana about the Ye Ole’ Blizzard of ’78. I can say I remember it because I was born in early ’79. However, many of my classmates in school were conceived during that blizzard. What do you do when you can’t go anywhere for days/weeks and sometimes there is no electricity??? HHHmmmm! Great pic!
P.S. Oops – I meant I can’t remember it 🙂
I was unable to “enjoy” that, as I wasn’t even conceived then. Most of my wifes’ high school class was concieved during the blizzard though. 🙂
Looking through photos on heraldtimesonline it does look similar.
Just thought I’d give my 2 cents. Peace
My folks were living in Grand Rapids at the time – it was bad up there too. What a storm.
Huh. Looks like our neighborhood in Queens the day after my son turned a year old.
I don’t miss the snow AT ALL.
Since moving to NYC in 1970, I have happy memories of every blizzard I’ve lived through, including the blizzard of ’78.
Blizzards can be very cool here, actually. With no vehicular traffic, Manhattan becomes extraordinarily quiet. Individual sounds, normally lost in the city’s ambient roar, become distinct and vivid. Suddenly, you hear footsteps crunching through snow, a plane passing overhead, the rattle of a doorknob, kids playing in an empty schoolyard a block away. It’s like hearing in 3-D.
Under a blanket of fresh snow, everything looks beautifully scrubbed and whitewashed (for a day or two, anyway, until peeing dogs and pollution exact their revenge). And you’re treated to wonderfully incongruous sights, like people skiing and sledding up the middle of Broadway.
The winters have become noticeably milder and shorter these last ten years. I’m in a minority: I miss those big ol’ snowy winters.
As a kid growing up in suburban New Orleans, the only weather anomaly I remember from that obscure year was a heavy downpour that resulted in street flooding that lasted a couple of days. I remember having fun riding my bike through the water.
Was that the May 3rd flood? (I want to say 1978 or 79) I think that changed drainage and the plans for drainage in the area that brought about many of the SELA Flood Control Projects projects we saw in the mid 90s.
I read a story about this in the Herald-Times today. I did the math and realized that I must have been conceived right around that time. I suppose now it would be too awkward to ask my parents what the blizzard was like.
We had a blizzard like that in Buffalo on my birthday (Jan. 28), in 1977. My mom had to race the storm to get my birthday cake. I got a week off from school too!
i was 10 during the blizzard of 78 in Bloomington indiana. I have fond memories of many days of canceled school and sledding. makes me want snow again, as we have only had one snow this winter big enough for sledding…just this year our daughter (4) and son(5) remember sledding last year and talk of it often.
Peace-
We’re having blizzards all over the country now! Right now there are 175,000 people stranded at the Guangzhou Railway Station. It might rise to 600,000!
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=0e7840c6-6186-4cb4-965c-50e891fd30cd&k=71215
D’oh! I hope I haven’t messed you up by adding a long link!
Not at all. I love a long link.
I was 3 years old and my family was living in Indianapolis when the Blizzard of ’78 struck. To this day, I still remember the giant snowbank at the end of our driveway. In my childlike eyes, it was as tall as the house. Was it really? Probably not. But that’s part of the magic of memories from childhood — they’re part real and part fantasy, kind of like in the Tim Burton movie “Big Fish”.
Thanks for rekindling my memory of that magical time.
I remember trying to drive home in Bloomington during the ‘78 blizzard with my brother. We couldn’t make it, luckily a family member worked for the County Hwy Dept. He had a truck meet us and plow in front of the car all of the way home. There were snowdrifts chest deep in our yard I was stuck at home several days, glad we didn’t lose any utilities…
I was 10 in Indiana during that Blizzard of ’78. Seemed like I was home for 2 weeks then. My grandpa had to use chains for our backwheeled truck and car. I remember playing board games like Monopoly, Life, and chess during that time.