Oh yeah. If no name, it ain’t a serious storm apparently. So, why commuting? Uh, your job? I remember living in McLean in the late 50’s. Thinking 59 IIRC. Dad had to go in to d.c., mom worked at the pentagon. Olds 88 rear wheel drive, no chains. I don’t recall them missing work because of snow.
I grew up in Detroit and never missed a single day at work due to weather. I now live near Baltimore. My first month there they shut the office down for three days due to snow. To be fair, it was lots and lots of snow but three days was a bit much.
One year early in my career, we had a national sales meeting. I was close enough that I didn’t rate a hotel room. There was a significant snowstorm coupled with a snowplow operator strike. Needless to say, the roads kinda sucked.
I left home at 4am and was still an hour late to the meeting, but that’s what you do.
We lived in snow country all our lives, and for decades 9nly had 2 wheel drive vehicles, and didn’t get time off. Some storms were bad enough that we had to wait for the snowplow to go through before we could get to the jobsites, and driving was miserable, near whiteout conditions with the winds that always crop up right at the end of storms, but we made it.
Then we got a 4 wheel drive vehicle- heaven on earth! Could go most anywhere, BUT the downside was that IF you got stuck with it, you were really really stuck lol. We didn’t have cell phones back then either. We learned to carry shovels, sand both for weight and for traction, and an extra set of warm clothes incase we ever got stranded. Thankfully we never did- decades of perfectly safe traveling (though white knuckle traveling at times to be sure). There was no “work from home” options available then, nor should there be except for perhaps certain jobs I suppoxe now
The Great Blizzard of 1978 was a historic winter storm that struck the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes regions of the United States as well as Southern Ontario in Canada from Wednesday, January 25 through Friday, January 27, 1978. It is often cited as one of the most severe blizzards in US history.Didn’t think twice about it. Well, maybe once or twice when the road cuts were pretty full of snow. Buick Regal, no chains.
I got to work around 8 am and the parking lot was empty. “How weird is that?” I thought. I went into the building and the guard asked “What are you doing here? We are closed.”
A snow day for work? What the heck? I wasn’t a radio listener so I didn’t get the message about work closures. I’d just gotten back to HQ after some years working in western mountains in winter (Sierras, Cascades, White Mountains, Wind Rivers) and found out easterners are pansies in snow.
In the mid 70s I applied for a position in DC. I was working in North NJ. The panel date was set and off I went the day before to be there for the 9AM schedule. Seems there was this tropical storm that worked its way up the interior coastal regions. Yes it was windy in the 225mi drive. Yes it was raining. Still, got to my motel, got up dressed, caught a bus to DC, got to the building on Constitution Ave, stopped at the entrance by a guard who asked what are you doing here. I told him I was there for an appointment. He said, DC is closed due to the storm! I managed to drive more than 200 miles in the event and they closed the city because of rain storm. It was a mess even then.
“I don’t recall them missing work because of snow.”
It takes longer to clear the streets now, because the EPA has outlawed dumping of Street snow into the Watershed. Lakes, rivers, bays, fresh or salty.