# Blizzard Of 1978.



## lawn king (Nov 21, 2004)

For those of you that are old enough to remember, it hit 30 years ago today! It was one hell of a storm!!


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## dmontgomery (Oct 3, 2003)

I remember it........I was 7.........I remember being able to easily step over the 42" chainlink fence in my parents back yard......


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## StoneDevil (Dec 13, 2007)

yep i also remember that storm i was 7 and had a blast no school for like a week


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## scottL (Dec 7, 2002)

It was 78/79. I was just a tad-pole at the time. When the front loader came down the street to push the snow back we had mounds in our parkway that were as tall as the trees, 14". The streets were like tunnels. Wild, simply wild. I wonder if they had the technology back then to have more insight to a storm what the weather casters would say on tv to have warned us????


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

scottL;507930 said:


> It was 78/79. I was just a tad-pole at the time. When the front loader came down the street to push the snow back we had mounds in our parkway that were as tall as the trees, 14". The streets were like tunnels. Wild, simply wild. I wonder if they had the technology back then to have more insight to a storm what the weather casters would say on tv to have warned us????


Not if it was 30 years ago today unless you're in a time warp and it's 2009 where you are.

The biggest blizzard in the Midwest was Jan 25, '78. From '76 through '79 we had some awesome winters.


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## rjfetz1 (Dec 2, 2006)

Yeap, I remember those days....... back when we walked to school thru 2' snow up hill..........and after school ........home thru 2 more feet uphill


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## KINNCO (Jan 19, 2007)

I was 14
Here Are A Few Pics From My Area
left: downtown area
right: Ice build up on the Muskingum River under the World famous Y-Bridge

I remember as a kid hearing the dynamite explosions when they where trying to break the ice jams


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## YardMedic (Nov 29, 2006)

I was 3, and I remember going outside with snow drifts halfway up the door. Long time ago... back when we had some great storms. I think it was my second year plowing in 95 when we got 16 pushes in southern NH


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

Here's one from the Blizzard of 77.That's my dad who works for the town.


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## Rotator911 (Mar 16, 2006)

that was 1 big storm but it was 2/6 & 2/7 if remember correctly in RI


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## LoneCowboy (Jan 2, 2007)

from http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~dtuttle/History/BlizzardOf1978.htm

The Blizzard of 1978
February 6-9, 1978

The second week of February, 1978 -- "The Week That Wasn't" for a majority of people in the Boston area. Major coastal damage was caused by severe winds, tides, and wave action. Driving bans were in effect for a full week as all of the cities and towns struggled to clear roadways filled with buried vehicles of all kinds. Area businesses shut down all non-essential activities because nobody could get to work.

At the time I was living on Springfield Street behind Watertown Square and working at Digital Equipment Corp. in Maynard. The storm began in earnest around noon on Monday; the majority of people left work early, but I stuck around until about 2:30. I had a front-wheel-drive Volkswagen Rabbit and a set of tire chains for the front, so I was pretty confident that I could get home safely. My commuting route was secondary roads through Sudbury, Lincoln, Waltham, and Belmont, so I did not have to travel on the main highways at all. Little did I realize that I would be one of the lucky ones, in spite of driving on the shoulder and on the wrong side of the road to weave around less capable vehicles...

Cars & trucks stranded on
I-95/Route 128
Many drivers and passengers spent the night trapped in their vehicles

The storm continued to build on Monday, and all of Tuesday was a day to stay inside and hope. High winds and 'white-out' conditions prevailed as the violent Nor'easter stalled off the coast and pounded the Boston area, delivering 25 inches of heavy snow and building drifts of 6 to 10 feet. Power and telephone outages hit many areas, but my house was spared. Fortunately I had done my bi-weekly food shopping the previous Saturday, so all I had to do was wait out the storm. With radio but no television, I could just listen to the news and imagine.
Wednesday morning dawned clear and very bright -- everything in sight was buried in snow, with one execption... Sitting in my driveway was my red VW Rabbit, without a flake of snow on it anywhere, bare pavement underneath! Across the street and next door, my neighbors' cars were visible only by a patch of roof or the radio antenna. Sometime overnight the snow plows had made at least one pass, so there was a 5-foot plow ridge that took me about 45 minutes to clear -- but that was all.

My house was on the corner and on a hill, with a 3-foot retaining wall up from the driveway to a postage-stamp front yard. Apparently the winds came off the hill, over and down the face of the wall, then scoured all of the snow off my car and the driveway. A little heap of snow next to each right wheel was all that I had to clear. I felt lucky and guilty; my neighbor up the hill had a garage under his house with walls on both sides of his driveway -- and 8 feet of snow filling it from sidewalk to foundation!

A hopeful warning for snowplows

Everywhere inside of Route 128, many cars were visible only by a radio antenna, a roof rack, or a small section of roof.

An unexpected break from work was OK, but Wednesday and Thursday and Friday morning dragged on... I walked down to the Store24 near the square once or twice, along with the other victims of cabin fever. The emergency driving ban was still in effect inside of Route 128, but the Merrimack Valley north of the city had not been hit as hard. Friday afternoon I put the chains on the car, threw some random spare computer parts in the front seat with my Digital Equipment Corp. ID badge, and impersonated an "emergency" repair technician to get over to I-93 North. From there it was clear and empty roads up to a [female] friend's place in Andover for the weekend. Just another winter storm in New England. . .

Driving was prohibited in much of Greater Boston for almost a full week; skis and snowshoes provided transportation for some


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## lawn king (Nov 21, 2004)

I was 15, to this day i have never seen a blizzard like that and i have worked some treacherous storms. One of my lawn clients was a meteorologist at logan airport, he could see the potential for that storm, he called his wife told her to go food shopping and hit the road home to pembroke! The full moon & high tide peaked with that storm and destroyed coastal areas of scituate and marshfield. I beleive a scituate fireman lost his life in a small boat, trying to rescue a young girl that was washed out into the harbor. There were 20 foot drifts all over town, my neighbor was transporting pregnant women to SS hospital on his snowmobile to have their babys. Storm of the century, too bad it had to destroy so much property & claim lives.


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## earl964 (Feb 4, 2006)

I was 11 and living in Malden Mass. we did not have school for about two weeks. We ended up going to school earlier in the morning and staying later in the afternoon to make up the time.


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## HKusp (Nov 21, 2007)

I remember that one here too. I was 8 and we had drifts in Maryland of 4 feet or more. My father and half the men in the neighborhood spent the day after clearing the alley so they could get to work. He worked for the phone company, back then it was still Ma Bell and they were offering triple time I think if they made it in. I spent alot of time digging tunnels in the drifts. Lots of fun.


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## Bill 211 (Nov 28, 2007)

'78 ...i was 17 driving around with my friends in my '68 vw beetle, did ok for a while , wound up leaving the car in the middle of the street a 1/2 a block from my house , it got stuck & so i left it there
 +  =


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

Bill 211;509635 said:


> '78 ...i was 17 driving around with my friends in my '68 vw beetle, did ok for a while , wound up leaving the car in the middle of the street a 1/2 a block from my house , it got stuck & so i left it there
> +  =


And it's still sitting there with 200 parking tickets on it.


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## Flipper (Nov 1, 2001)

Hey lawn king I lived in Scituate. I was only 3 at the time so I only remember huge snow drifts around our house. I will have to ask my mom about some of that. I know my Dad who was in commercial insurance was busy in the following weeks. I still have his slide photgraphs of the storm and damage afterward.


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## bribrius (May 5, 2007)

I can't imagine working a storm like that. gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "plow with the storm".
where would i even begin? i would quickly run out of room and end up sitting on top of my truck as a snowdrift consumed it.


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## B&B (Nov 4, 2006)

grandview;508198 said:


> Here's one from the Blizzard of 77.That's my dad who works for the town.


Is that a gal can of Fluid Film setting on the roof of his truck? Ahh..the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree .


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## JeepTJ (Nov 4, 2006)

I was a senior in college that year in Worcester, MA. It was the second time in the college's history (since 1865) that it was shut down. 1st was when JFK was shot. I had a '57 Chevy in the dorm's parking lot and the snow was up over the front fenders without drifts. Even if I could get the car out the city was closed down for about a week. We had to do a lot of prsport to get around!!! One of our dorm mates was out trying to get his car going so he could move it to another spot. I was standing nearby and heard a backfire through the carb. A little fire started, so he grabbed a sand-ladden handful of snow and threw it down into the carb to put out the fire. That engine sure did suck in the snow, sand and all. As I stood there watching, I was thinking that was no was to treat a '71 Hemi Cuda convertible :crying:. Spoiled little rich kid. I wonder if he still has it and what it would be worth today??

I had a local girlfriend at the time, who worked at one of the hospitals. She was picked up each day by the National Guard on a snowmobile to bring her to/from work:salute:. It was a tough time for us seniors, because all the employment recruiters couldn't make it on campus. I probably lost out on a great potential job.

Fran


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

B&B;509686 said:


> Is that a gal can of Fluid Film setting on the roof of his truck? Ahh..the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree .


No it's not.:crying:

But he did drive that Dodge the whole time and it's 2wd! And he still works for the town and only has 2wd still,


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## cornbinder (Oct 16, 2005)

JeepTJ;509690 said:


> I was a senior in college that year in Worcester, MA. It was the second time in the college's history (since 1865) that it was shut down. 1st was when JFK was shot. I had a '57 Chevy in the dorm's parking lot and the snow was up over the front fenders without drifts. Even if I could get the car out the city was closed down for about a week. We had to do a lot of prsport to get around!!! One of our dorm mates was out trying to get his car going so he could move it to another spot. I was standing nearby and heard a backfire through the carb. A little fire started, so he grabbed a sand-ladden handful of snow and threw it down into the carb to put out the fire. That engine sure did suck in the snow, sand and all. As I stood there watching, I was thinking that was no was to treat a '71 Hemi Cuda convertible :crying:. Spoiled little rich kid. I wonder if he still has it and what it would be worth today??
> 
> I had a local girlfriend at the time, who worked at one of the hospitals. She was picked up each day by the National Guard on a snowmobile to bring her to/from work:salute:. It was a tough time for us seniors, because all the employment recruiters couldn't make it on campus. I probably lost out on a great potential job.
> 
> Fran


well considering there was only 6, 71 hemi cudas ever built and 1 of those sold for around 1 million dollars!!! unreal. later, pete


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## lawn king (Nov 21, 2004)

There is a new book out called the blizzard of 1978, you can pick it up at B&N or borders. There are some very cool pictures as well as stats. and stories.


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## Dodge Plow Pwr (Dec 7, 2007)

I was 12 and was shoveling snow with my friends and brother. Heck we were even shoveling it off of roofs. We made a ton of $$$ saved it and bout a new bike in the summer. and a few others. It was as tall our house. I tunneled out of my back window of the house and basically had a new room for me. Parents were made said it would cave in on me and I would suffocate....


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## JeepTJ (Nov 4, 2006)

cornbinder;509765 said:


> well considering there was only 6, 71 hemi cudas ever built and 1 of those sold for around 1 million dollars!!! unreal. later, pete


Makes you sick!! At the time the car was worth maybe $3,500.

I had another friend who had a car repairman friend named Gus, who restored AC Cobras. I went to his garage on day and he had 6 Cobras in the shop. One of them was the sweetest deeeep black 427 You could a mile into the paint. He had several 260's and 289's there as well. If I wasn't so poor, I could have bought one of the 289's (needed a little work) for about $7,000 If we only knew..

Fran


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## coach (Sep 21, 2005)

Did gus live in Mass. If is him I have pics of that cobra. He also drove the dragonsnake cobras in NHRA for Shelby.

Ken


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## JeepTJ (Nov 4, 2006)

coach;510265 said:


> Did gus live in Mass. If is him I have pics of that cobra. He also drove the dragonsnake cobras in NHRA for Shelby.
> 
> Ken


Ken, Gus lived?/worked just on the outskirts of Worcester, MA. It sounds like the same person.

Fran


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## coach (Sep 21, 2005)

Yup same person he did a motor on a modified for me his shop was amazing! all that cobra stuff. That black cobra belonged to a friend of mine. He could sure build a motor.

Ken


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## PLOWMAN45 (Jul 2, 2003)

grandview;509644 said:


> And it's still sitting there with 200 parking tickets on it.


your avatar who is that ?


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## JeepTJ (Nov 4, 2006)

coach;511044 said:


> Yup same person he did a motor on a modified for me his shop was amazing! all that cobra stuff. That black cobra belonged to a friend of mine. He could sure build a motor.
> 
> Ken


Gus Zuidema, he was the only one to drag race Shelby's one-off Cobra Dragonsnake 427, bought by Harr Ford. Used to run in the low 10's, right out of the box. Try that in any of today's Detroit iron!!! Betcha that car would run an easy $2 million at auction since the "lesser" 289 DS have sold for $1.5 million!!

Fran


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## coach (Sep 21, 2005)

I'll dig up the pics of the black cobra. That car was just a beast, got a chance to drive it, crazy fast!

Ken


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## Daddy Wags (Feb 3, 2007)

lawn king;509944 said:


> There is a new book out called the blizzard of 1978, you can pick it up at B&N or borders. There are some very cool pictures as well as stats. and stories.


I remember that one. I was 13 yrs old. I had a morning paper route back then. I was delivering the Cleveland Plain Dealer that morning at around 5am. I used to deliver the paper on my bike with a paperbasket on the front. A little too much snow for the bike that day. I had to resort to the canvas Plain Dealer Bag over my shoulders. When I got back that morning, I thought my hands had frost bite. They have never been colder since then.


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## Megunticook (Dec 1, 2006)

lawn king;507815 said:


> For those of you that are old enough to remember, it hit 30 years ago today! It was one hell of a storm!!


Sure was. I had just moved in with my grandparents in Lakewood (first town west of Cleveland) that fall. We came from the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont, so I knew a little about winter storms. I was in 5th grade at the time, and they closed the school all week (I remember they had a hell of a time heating that 80-year-old building that winter).

It was awesome (literally). Even by Vermont standards it was an impressive storm. Would've been interesting to have been running a plow truck back then...funny, the truck I use now was only 4 years old that winter!

I lived in Lakewood until I graduated from high school in 1985. We had a few more good winters, but looking back I can see that it was the beginning of the end as far as heavy-duty winter is concerned. Just to compare, I was back visiting my grandmother for her 90th birthday last month, the day before I left it was 65 degrees! Quite amazing to see climate change happening so quickly in our lifetime--and a little frightening. I miss the big winters...


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## PLOWMAN45 (Jul 2, 2003)

i remeber my father had a 1975 k5 blazer with fisher plow


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