Former, urrent residents remember blizzard (anniversary of great NE blizzard of '78)

The Nashua (NH) Telegraph ^ | 02/06/03 | Dean Shalhoup

[NewHampshireDuo]

This week, as New England observes the 25th anniversary of the famous Blizzard of ’78, a number of readers wrote to The Telegraph to share their stories from the storm.

One was Peter Fisette, who drove his sporty, low-slung 1976 Pontiac Trans Am to work in Wellesley, Mass., the morning of Feb. 6, 1978. After the blizzard hit, he took a company truck home, and made it, but he wouldn’t go to work again – or see his Trans Am – for more than a week.

When Fisette was finally able to return to his office, he found only a path through the snow where he thought he had parked a week before.

“It turned out the kids were walking right over the top of my car and didn’t even know it,” Fisette wrote. “I spent the whole day digging it out.”

Recently, he wrote, he moved to Virginia “to get away from all of this snow for good.”

Telephone lineman Don Armstrong was working a job that day at the State Street Bank building in Boston as the storm worsened. He remembers a bunch of people going home ill, not with worry about the weather, but with motion sickness. Working on the 23rd floor, they could feel the building twist and sway in the wind.

Armstrong decided it was time to leave the high-rise when the window blinds began a rhythmic pounding on the frames. Two hours later, he was home in Stoneham, Mass., but the fun wasn’t over – a huge drift from the wind and heavy road-clearing equipment had pinned him inside.

Unable to open the door, he described how he removed a panel and shoveled snow the only place he could – inside the house – to dig a tunnel to the street.

New Boston resident Jan Pelchat, who then lived in the Crown Hill section of Nashua, wanted to take the day off from work. But her boss wouldn’t let her and even came to pick her up. She worked a full day before he brought her home. It took three hours. They got stuck a lot.

Nashua resident Jerry Carney was a teacher in South Easton, Mass., and lived in nearby Brockton in 1978. When school was dismissed at 1 p.m., he made it home but was housebound for three days. A Coast Guard reservist, he couldn’t get to his unit in Hull, Mass., even though a general recall had been announced because of the state of emergency.

Maria Kwiatkowski, now a Londonderry resident, lived in the beachside community of Revere, Mass., in ’78.

“I was a senior in high school,” she wrote. “My girlfriend and I were jogging the beach as the storm came in. The winds were unbelievable, but we had made a bet on who could run the entire length first.”

On the way back, Kwiatkowski said, a kind soul at Kelly’s Roast Beef gave them hot chocolate as they watched the waves crash over the walls.

Milford resident Jed Coughlin, a concert sound engineer who lived in Boston 25 years ago, made it home from a New Hampshire gig. But when he awoke the next day, he looked out to see his van nearly covered by snow.

His assignment was to shovel out his family and then an elderly neighbor, who had run out of heating oil.

“It took me four hours to shovel a path about 60 feet between our door and the neighbor’s,” he wrote. He remembers neighborhood bars that served food being asked to stay open 24 hours for the road crews.

The effects of the blizzard weren’t limited to the Northeast, as current Amherst resident Christina Vera remembers. She wrote that her town of Piqua, Ohio, was similarly buried.

For her, the storm brought people together. After they dug themselves out, her family took in neighbors and looked after many elderly folks, and when her father died several years ago, many of those people’s families went to the funeral.

Former Nashua Memorial Hospital recovery room nurse Avis Anctil, now a Florida resident, summed up the experience well.

“Many of the surgeons skied into the hospital,” she wrote. “Boy, do I remember (the storm). What a day that was.”

[NewHampshireDuo]

So, New England freepers, can you remember what you were doing on this date 25 years ago (fortunately, I was in California at the time and missed all the excitement).

[NewHampshireDuo]

Urrent = Current (sorry for the mispelling)

[Kip Lange]

I was being babysat at home while my father had the bright idea to try to go out to get food (oddly enough, also in Wellesley) at the Wellesley Market (now long gone). He drove the car up on a curb during a whiteout and barely made it home. ;-) He was one inch away from the glass storefront of the market.

Man, that was a storm.

[axel f]

This will be a fun thread to watch. I like to hear weather stories.

[Kip Lange]

I also remember the National Guard choppering in the local pharmacist so people could get their medications...Dukakis in his sweater...128 a wasteland of parked cars...

[billorites]

I was living in Fairfield, Maine and working in Lewiston.

I didn't really notice the storm paid it no mind.

Meanwhile, my parents on Cape Cod were in a fight for their lives (almost).

[Living Free in NH]

I was a 15 year old kid living in Massachusetts at the time and I remember walking 1.5 miles to a store for some basic necessities (milk, cereal, smokes for Mom, ...). It had been 2 or 3 days since it stopped snowing and none of the roads had been plowed yet; not that it mattered because it was illegal to drive in the state for about a week anyway. No school for almost 3 weeks - it was Heaven on Earth.

[ozone1]

I just got out of Boston after Northeastern shutdown. 128 was still open. I remember driving home on Rt 24 and a car just stopped in the middle lane to clear off the snow off his windshield. It took 2 hours to get from Boston to Brockton (~20 miles). (Driving in a VW camper) Had 48 inches of snow and 8 foot drifts. House bound for 2 days then took the sled to get food and get to the packie. Luckily never lost power. Wasn't as bad as the great Maine Ice storm.

[Revelation 911]

The snow was high enough to jump from the first story roof onto the driveway - I was sixteen......and yes, a few screws short of a lit lightbulb. When the plows normally did our street, they'd pile it all in front of our home, creating a huge pile. - On that we'd build a fort and dig tunnels.

I miss those days - But at this point they are just memories - I am frankly sick of this weather and being trapped indoors for 4 months. But it makes us a hardy bunch i guess - It was 30 the other day, and we were all walking around without coats

[Living Free in NH]

Another memory... My Dad was a firefighter and worked 5 straight days. I remember that they found a car on Route 1 with a couple old ladies in it who had assumed room temperature (a very cold room).

[Chad Fairbanks]

I like reading these stories of all the Flatlanders who couldn't handle a little snow... ;0)

[ozone1]

My younger brother threw the dog (Waffles) off the roof of the porch a couple of time. He loved it (the dog also loved Wild Turkey and Pepsi).

[eno_]

missed all the excitement I was there. It snowed as much in Boston as it routinely does in Buffalo.

[Chad Fairbanks]

not that it mattered because it was illegal to drive in the state for about a week anyway.

Luckily, snowmobiles were available... and with no cars on the roads, well... :0)

[NewHampshireDuo]

It wasn't just the snow to handle, the winds and drifting were horrific. That's what caused most of the problems.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, yeah, there was that too... :0)

[harpseal]

Twenty five years ago today I was working in Boston and living in Boston. I left work with just a dusting of snow on the ground and got home via the green line an hour later. The next couple of days when I wanted to get out I took skis becuase it was illegal to drive.

[metesky]

Meanwhile, my parents on Cape Cod were in a fight for their lives (almost).

They must have lived on the Upper Cape, somewhere around Sandwich or Falmouth.

In the Mid-Cape area, Barnstable and Yarmouth, we got a "mere" 15" and that all in one day. The storm raged on off-Cape for another full day.

The Lower Cape (actually the forearm and fist, which most people logically think would be the Upper Cape) got an inch or two before bright sunshine burst fourth. All the low lands were flooded out and there were super winds and dire warnings on the radio and TV to, "stay away from Coast Guard Beach in Eastham."

Warnings! Oh boy! By the time we got there there were at least 2000 people up on the bluff cheering the losing fight the bath house was fighting against the giant waves.

[metesky]

(Driving in a VW camper)

Damn hippy!
;O)

[Media Insurgent]

As a relative newcomer to Mass., I've noticed that every time there's a big snowstorm, or even the possibility of a big snowstorm, the local TV stations start invoking the Blizzard of 78. There's the obligatory footage of the Mass Pike being closed and people shoveling copious amounts of snow.

I always have to chuckle at this because I'm orignally from the Syracuse, NY area where snowstorms and massive snowfalls are routine. Now if you really want to talk about a memorable winter storm, do a little research on the Blizzard of '66 that hit Central New York in January of that year. Now THAT was a blizzard!