35 Years ago...

I moved from Phoenix Az. to northern Mi. in Feb. that year! Left Az. it was 70° hit Fife lake the high was -14°. We got lucky and stayed between storms driving.

I was 30, attending a Navy school in Newport RI. Unforgettable. 3 state governors made it illegal to drive. Logan airport shut down. Miles of vehicles were stranded/abandoned on area highways. I think I still have a special Sunday newspaper supplement all about it.

I remember it. I was almost 30, and 1978 was a year that changed my life forever....

Lived near Gaylord, MI in 1978 and remember it well. We had so much snow that we decided to just clear out a spot for the car. The snow was so deep that I told my boys we should have no worries. Ha! We got over 30" in that storm. Needless to say, we had a mess.

I should add that we sold our house that winter (in March). New owners wanted to know how much propane was in the tank. We had pointed out where the tank was but now I had one of our sons go shovel down to see how much propane there was.

New owners said every time they came back from town their dogs were sitting on the peak of the roof. An easy walk up there.

Wooddust said:

The Blizzard of 1978 hit. Do you remember it? I lived in Kankakee Illinois and the drift in my front yard started literally at the roof peak and ended in the across the street neighbors yard. People died south of Kankaee on I-57 either frozen to death in their car or trying to walk somewhere in the storm after they got stuck.

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Everything I carry in my truck is the direct result of going 3-4 miles in an old PU truck that day. What a story. It's funny now. Anybody with a snowmobile was pressed into delivering insulin. Atom (Adam?) Smasher was on the radio for three straight days because there was no relief. People have crazy stories.

Yep, I was about 10 years old. Around here I think we had big storms in '77 and '78. One year was 5 days off school in a row and the other year I remember churches being cancelled 4 or 5 Sundays in a row.

I was 11, living in SW CT, and remember sleeping in the living room while my Dad furiously kept a fire going in our open fireplace. He bought a Glacier Bay wood/coal stove shortly after that. That was my introduction to wood burning and also one of the reasons I place high value on a good wood stove and a wood pile...

People sometimes forget what storms like that did to livestock....I can remember working 18 hour days digging out lots and barns with a FEL. It's the wind that just crushes you, dig out one lot and the last one you did is virtually filled in again. I think that snow and wind is way worse than this cold we been getting this year. I rather burn an extra cord or two than pushing snow around.

I spent a week in a strangers house on that one.

I just came in from plowing my 1/4 mile driveway. Wife is a ICU nurse and must go to work. They will come after her in a plow truck if necessary. It is drifting back as soon as I plow it this morning. The snow looks like little tornados out there right now.

Not near what the blizzard was though,,,,,,

Yes that one and several others over the years, at that time I had a home in Beloit WI. I was about 30 then.

That storm changed the lives of me and my young bride for ever. I was running Woolworth stores at the time and had to try to get home to Fairhaven from Hanover Mall. The ride on a good day was an hour this day it took over four in my small 73 Toyota pickup. As I crossed the bridge from New Bedford into Fairhaven I could not see so I put down both windows and crawled across.

As I got to the bottom of our street the truck could push snow no longer so I pulled off to the side and walked the rest of the way. Got up the next morning and it was still snowing so we both walked down to try and get the truck. Some idiot had left the passenger side window down and the truck was full to the roof with snow :-(.

Anyway all roads were closed for more than a week so we had fun digging out and (other things) . Then in October we were blessed with boy girl twins in a hospital over loaded with births. Other things can do that to ya. BEST STORM EVER for us.

Yep...Buffalo & Roch

Wooddust said:

The Blizzard of 1978 hit. Do you remember it?

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In Connecticut, a buddy of mine and I saw his Chrysler Station Wagon (huge BOATS in those days) completely buried under snow (no plow drifts.....just "snow").

35 years ago I was just getting married. A significant year, no matter HOW you slice it!

-Soupy1957

not me....although I was 26, I was in Europe....Wiesbaden. I seem to remember another bad one in the late 60's...maybe 69. my dad who worked as a heavy equipment operator for the state of n.y. was shipped out to buffalo from the Albany area to help man the plows. only time I remember him going tdy to help an area. I remember the plows couldn't make it down the road for a week. groceries were pulled up the mountain via horseback and toboggan. I traveled from Ft Hood to Albany, I think in jan-feb 76 (I think) when the whole eastern seaboard got hit by a storm. first day I only made it to Texarkana, second day to bowling green, Rochester the third, then into Albany. I normally did it in about a day and a half. lots of accidents....kinda like recent news accounts. I was filling up with gas at one place and a guy came in too fast and couldn't stop and pushed the pump off the island....that was a little intense. chains tore up my brand new buick Skyhawk. what a trip. lots and lots of ice and eventually blowing and drifting snow.

The blizzard in the Midwest and the one in the northeast were two different blizzards. We had a storm that dropped about 20 inches Jan 20 or 21st, the blizzard in the Midwest was a couple days after and was a big rainstorm in the northeast that pretty much wiped out the snow here. The blizzard in the northeast was Feb 6, my Gran Torino was buried in the driveway. Drifts were 15-20 feet in some cases. What distinguishes the Blizzard of 78 from other blizzards was the wind associated with it, last years Blizzard dropped as much snow but without the wind it was much easier to handle.
The Buffalo blizzard in 77 was only 1 foot of snow but there was deep powder snow on the lake that blew into land for days, it looked like 4-5 feet of snow fell but the majority of the snow was picked up from the lake by the winds. Really unique event that might never happen again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_of_1977

1) Don't remember the blizzard (I was -10 years at the time)
2) Dad does tell the story of keeping their wood furnace blasting and running around in the 80-degree house without a shirt on. Meanwhile, my Mom (dad's girlfriend at the time) was huddled with her parents and 3 siblings in their winter clothes in 1 bed, listening to the pipes freeze and burst under the house.
3) My grandparents were milking cows at the time and only 1 choice: milk the cows and pour the milk right back into the manger due to no electricity to run out silage or water for that matter.

I hope we have another one that big and I DON'T hope we have another one that big: it seems people these days aren't as equipped to fend for themselves like "back in the day." To those of you that made it through and witnessed "The Big One," I'm a little jealous

I was two when the blizzard of 1978 hit. My father was a volunteer firefighter and spent a week at the fire station. At the time he had a 1971 K-5 Blazer and the fire chief designated it as the chief's vehicle so he drove the chief around once the roads were cleared some. My mother and I stayed home with my grandmother who got stranded at our house. Not sure if we lost power or not but we had a wood burner so we survived.

And today is the anniversary of the blizzard of 1967. I had to go out a window of our house as we could not open the doors!

I was a freshmen in high school, we where moving to our new house about 2-3 miles away in Homewood IL. As someone posted, the drifts were so high you could walk up the roof. School was closed for 2 days. Now we are our on second batch of school closing. We plowed out the school parking lots this morning, lots were down to pavement with no salt. And now school closed for 2 days because of cold, but support staff must report in or lose overtime and cost you a day of vacation.

1940's storm in Milwaukee, if you had a 2 story you could walk out the second story if not you had to dig your way out.

My pockets were bulging with money. Taking people on a Ski Doo from the stranded cars on Rt. 128 (now 95) and bringing them to Howard Johnsons.