[maxelson]

We have quite a few East Coasters here.
So. What were you up to this day in 1978?
The family lived in Worcester, MA at the time. It was the day before my 10th birthday and I spent it kind of gazing out the window- looking at more snow fall than I have seen before or since. Of course, I was looking at it with the eyes of a ten year old, so I was quivering with joy.
For some reason, I decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room that night. Don't recall why. I remember waking up and looking out the window to... nothing but white. The front of the house was COMPLETELY covered with snow. My dad had to go out the basement (leeward side of the house), climb up the stairs to the drive way and spend about an hour and a half just digging out the front door. The red Buick Skylark was under about 6 feet of snow. The front of the house from the street just looked like a huge snow drift (two story house!).
Somewhere, I have those pics.
Then, of course, there was the frolic: getting the snowsuit on and, after a path was cleared in the driveway, getting a running start and DIVING off the top step (there was a steep staircase going down into the back yard), flying all the way down into the back yard (about an 18 foot drop), landing in a snow bank.

Jeez, EVERY kid should get at least one monster snowstorm like that...

[denim]

Originally posted by maxelson:
Jeez, EVERY kid should get at least one monster snowstorm like that...

All I can say is that that week was easily my favorite childhood memory. Cars? Who needs 'em? We have a sled, and we can pull it to and back from the grocery store. Dad can't go to work? Guess he'll just have to stay with us and do jigsaw puzzles (purchased at the grocery store) all week! No school. This is a problem?

[rjenkinson]

Originally posted by maxelson:
Jeez, EVERY kid should get at least one monster snowstorm like that...

what, individually or collectively?

-r.

[Cubeoid]

I can't recall. Probably floating in the 4th dimension. 4 years later I incarnated into what you now know.

[maxelson]

Originally posted by rjenkinson:
what, individually or collectively?

-r.

It was one of the best birthday presents we ever got. Oh. That would be the Royal "we".

[denim]

Originally posted by maxelson:
It was one of the best birthday presents we ever got. Oh. That would be the Royal "we".

It's colored the way I look at snow ever since. Of course, I didn't spend a lot of time in Michigan since then, or that'd have been burned out of me, I suspect.

[malvolio]

I was living far enough inland that we got a mere 18 inches or so from that storm. I remember driving around the city of Albany, NY in my Datsun B210, and having to charge full-speed through intersections in order to smash through the walls of snow that the plows created. Luckily for me, there was almost nobody else on the streets.

[roger_ramjet]

My grandparents' house (which by this time was actually owned by my dad) had a second-story deck. It covered my grandpa's workshop and was called the "furnace room" because, well, you know, that's where the furnace was. Anyway, the snow drifted almost as high as the deck. So we just climbed over the railing and did cannonballs into the snow. Much fun!!!

(BTW, that was an extremely well-built house. My grandpa built it himself.)

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

Then came the decade of Brown Christmases (84 to 92)

I seem to remember a couple of pretty big storms in Calgary when I was growing up, but nothing like the '78 Blizzard. We mostly would get 4 to 8 inches at a time, and then it would just stuck around. It was more of a cumulative effect than anything else. Then it would go +15C in the middle of February when the Chinooks kicked in!

My last year there, 1984, I went skiing at Sunshine Mountain on June 1, and it closed for the season the next day. There was still a small patch of snow at the north end of our school, lying in shadow.

[andi*pandi]

don't remember much. I was 7. I do recall tunnelling in the clear clean snow by our walkway... the banks were so high I had quite the little snow house built. I liked peeking out at my folks walking by... notably my dad, still shoveling.

Sigh. Back when I was small.

I wish I'd thought to cannonball off the porch into the snow... but maybe we didn't get as much in maine as massachusetts did.

[Zimphire]

In 78' at this time I was just about to turn 6. I had just moved to my house from Cleveland. I had a plastic toy Space Shuttle I carried around everywhere that my best friend gave me for a going away present. Oh and I was playing doctor with the gal down the street.

[chris v]

That was a cold-@ss winter in Texas, too. I remember it well. Ice everywhere, but no snow.

We haven't had real snow since '86 or '87. I desperately want for my 4 YO boy to get a chance to see some before he goes off to college.

CV

[sek929]

Unfortunately I wasn't born yet, so I didn't get to see that doozie.

Largest snowstorm I've seen was like 94 or so, on April 1st. A little over 2 feet of snow (not in the drift areas of course), whacked all the way down to Virginia. I remember not having school for three days, and I lived in a big city with lots of plows and salt.

Those were the days...Though I think if we get a big enough storm system to come through this Winter we are definetely gonna get a big snowstorm, its been so friggin' cold (compared to the last 5 or 6 winters) this winter.

C'mooooooon snow!

[maxelson]

Originally posted by chris v:
That was a cold-@ss winter in Texas, too. I remember it well. Ice everywhere, but no snow.

We haven't had real snow since '86 or '87. I desperately want for my 4 YO boy to get a chance to see some before he goes off to college.

CV

Bring him on up. We got a storm coming in tonight!

[SeSawaya]

we had a drift 12' tall between our garage roof and the neighbors roof. it was fun trying to scale over that to get to my friends house.

I seem to recall that 83 was a bad snow year over the course of a whole week (not just 1 day)

Ahh, Lake effect snow

[chris v]

Originally posted by maxelson:
Bring him on up. We got a storm coming in tonight!

I'd love to. Something about a credit card, though. Something about payments... What could it be that's bugging me about these thoughts?

But yeah, I'd take him straight to it if it didn't cost a grand to do so. Maybe if it snows further out in the Hill Country to the northwest, we'll take a drive. We've actually got a slim chance (pushing the boundaries of chaos theory on the 6:00 weather report last night) of getting a little this weekend.

CV

[chris v]

There seems to have been a slight problem with the database.

[maxelson]

Blizzard in my hometown:
Split off 290 to 190 looking north.


Middle of the storm- Burncoat St.


Near my old neighborhood:


Actually, it does not look too bad in these photos. But DAMN. It was INTENSE.

[daimoni]

.

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

Originally posted by daimoni:
I'd love to come out to the Noreast and experience that kind of stuff first hand.

Go to Anchorage, AK, around Christmas, the ice fog is beautiful when the trees get all glazed.

[thunderous_funker]

Wow, I was living in Bowie, Maryland in 78 and I've always had a childhood memory of a massive snowstorm that closed school for days and shut down the city. The windard side of the house had 10-15' drifts. We built tunnels across the streets to our friends' house.

It's one of my favorite childhood memories.

Until this moment, I had never wondered about the fact that it must have been part of a massive storm that would have affected the entire region. It never occurred to me.

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to suddenly learn that I shared that week of winter wonderland with so many other kids.

Wow, do I love the information age!

<childhood Thunderous_Funker throws a much belated snowball at childhood Maxelson and everyone else who remembers that week>

[andi*pandi]

<childhood Thunderous_Funker throws a much belated snowball at childhood Maxelson and everyone else who remembers that week>

<childhood andi*pandi scoffs at thunderous funker's snowball from within the safety of her snow fortress>

[suprz]

i may live on the east coast now, but back in 1978, i was in sunny california, sucking down a beer at the beach......

[maxelson]

I was watching some of the archived TV coverage of the Blizzard as it was reairedlast night.
I remember it being a hell of a lot of fun (Ducks thunderfunkers projectile and chucks a finely crafted slushball his way, turns and dumps a bucket of snow on andi's head), but it was a big hardship for so many.
Folks in Boston, Swampscot, Revere- most of the coastal communities got absolutely decked.
The storm was a typical Nor'easter except for two facts: it stalled and continued to spiral and drag in moisture from the ocean- and here's the kicker- it occurred on a full moon. Already higher tides were amplified by the winds. The storm surge for some was devastating. The sea wall in Revere just... went. Plymouth was practically immersed.

The comparison was the October Storm of '91 (the "Perfect Storm") where three systems converged into one off the Grand Banks- also a full moon. The North Shore was pretty much under water and the Cape Cod Nat'l Seashore was nuked erosion wise. Then again, there was no ice in '91.

I had fun, but some folks were homeless. Risks of living on the shore, I guess...

[wdlove]

I was in Nebraska at the time.

The local stations are spending this week commerating the 25th anniversary, photos and 1st person accounts.

We've had a record for the season total snowfall of >100" twice in the 90's, I belive it was '93 - 94 & '95 - 96.

It's snowing here today in Boston, expecting 4 - 5"

[Zimphire]

93 was a bad snow year here also

[calamar1]

Originally posted by thunderous_funker:
Wow, I was living in Bowie, Maryland in 78 and I've always had a childhood memory of a massive snowstorm that closed school for days and shut down the city. The windard side of the house had 10-15' drifts. We built tunnels across the streets to our friends' house.

That is so weird. i lived in Bowie, also, at the time. Somewhere not far from Pointer Ridge Elementary School, if that means anything. i definitely remember a big snowstorm sometime when i was very little... Small world.

Snow is cool. Today my office is wasting time watching hapless cars with rear-wheel drive climb a hill outside our windows. hahaha...

[maxelson]

Originally posted by calamar1:


Snow is cool. Today my office is wasting time watching hapless cars with rear-wheel drive climb a hill outside our windows. hahaha...

Oi! No giggling! I got a 50 mile trek from Lexington to Worcester to make... uhm... RIGHT NOW! Front wheel drive, tho... But it ain't me that worries me... it's everybody ELSE!

[thunderous_funker]

Originally posted by calamar1:
That is so weird. i lived in Bowie, also, at the time. Somewhere not far from Pointer Ridge Elementary School, if that means anything. i definitely remember a big snowstorm sometime when i was very little... Small world.

Small world, indeed

We lived on Kennelworth Lane, IIRC. It was just a few blocks from Kennelworth Elementary. I was 6 at the time so my memories of that time are really just a collage of fragments.

The snow storm is quite vivid, though. Is this kind like when they talk about recovered memories? If so, I remember you hitting me with a snowball and I am now going to pummel you in retaliation!

Have at you!!

[calamar1]

Originally posted by thunderous_funker:

The snow storm is quite vivid, though. Is this kind like when they talk about recovered memories? If so, I remember you hitting me with a snowball and I am now going to pummel you in retaliation!

Have at you!!

Hahahahahaha!!! At last, we meet again! That'll teach you to make fun of my Snoopy mittens!!!

Actually, i was about 3 at the time, and have memories of frolicking in a park with my parents in a truly massive amount of snow. It may well have been a different snowstorm, but not too much later, i don't think. Now, if i can only find those mittens...

And to maxelson, i hope your commute goes well--my office is emptying out, but i get to stick around, due to the shortness of my commute.

[denim]

Originally posted by calamar1:
And to maxelson, i hope your commute goes well--my office is emptying out, but i get to stick around, due to the shortness of my commute.

I was just informed that my car is ready at the body shop, from an accident I was in last month. I just hope I can get it home in one piece. And that I can get there in one piece!

Update: I got back in one piece!