Remembering the blizzard of '78 (where were you when the blizzard hit?)

The Boston Globe ^ | 02/06/03 | B. J. Roche

[NewHampshireDuo]

The images linger: snowbound interstates clogged with abandoned vehicles -- 3,500 on an eight-mile stretch of Route 128 alone; parked cars that became towering snowdrifts along Boston streets best navigated on skis; people tugging grocery-laden sleds on unplowed major thoroughfares; Governor Michael S. Dukakis on television, clad in a reassuring pullover sweater.

[Semper Paratus]

What really made it bad was that 2 weeks before 24 inches fell in southern New England so another 3 feet was the coup de grace.

[PetroniDE]

I lived in Medford, MA back then. Seven straight days of no school, followed soon after by the Feburary vacation.

Making those days up in June was a b****.

[Inspectorette]

I still bore my husband with stories of the Blizzard of '78. I've been living in California for 18 years, but I grew up in Central Massachusetts.

My former sister-in-law was living in Tonawanda, NY, and she loved to talk about their Blizzard of '77. I finally had one to top her with.

[wideawake]

I was in NYC. We got something like 27 inches, and the snowplows came by and pushed the snow up in six and seven foot drifts down every street.

It was pretty crazy - my little sister walked out the back door and fell into a drift well over her head.

[robjna]

''If you got stuck in your car along the coast, it was terrible. . . . But if you made it
home, people would light up and they couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it all was.''

Back in '78 it could almost be guaranteed i was lighting up.

[camle]

Ah yes, I remember it well... gov closed the state and handed out $100 fines to anyone caught on the roads. I weaseled my way out of a fine, but the guy behind me, a coworked didn't.

[aristeides]

It wqs the first time Harvard cancelled classes since the Revolution.

[wideawake]

Actually, if I'm not mistaken - that might have been in '77, I'm not sure . . .

[sheik yerbouty]

i lived in Queens. I dug a path 2 blocks long, got in the car, and visited some friends in upstate NY. The neighbors were incredulous and were snowed in for three more days.

[NewYorker]

I was living at the corner of Newbury St. and Dartmouth St. in Boston and remember struggling down Newbury Street after the office closed early. During the afternoon the electricity went out and a party developed in my apt. Late that night we all went out to play in the snow that was waist high.

[Alberta's Child]

Wow -- what great memories.

Someone else mentioned that there were actually TWO big snowstorms within a few weeks of each other that winter.

I think the reference to the "Perfect Storm" of 1991 is incorrect, though. I believe the author was referring to the December 1992 "Nor'easter" storm in which a series of coinciding events combined to raise rivers in the eastern U.S. to flood levels they hadn't seen in at least 100 years. The storm surge was unusually high because it occurred during a full moon, and it was on top of an unusually high full-moon tide because there was also a lunar eclipse at the same time -- tides are highest during an eclipse when the sun and moon are exactly 180 degrees apart in the sky.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Exactly right - 3 feet on top of two feet equals lots and lots of snow. Most incredible storm I have ever experienced.

[palmer]

Don Kent, a now-retired WBZ meteorologist, saw it coming.

Don Kent would draw the weather chart on live TV, you could actually learn something by watching him.

[NonValueAdded]

Wow, thanks for the nostalgia post. Don Kent, Dukakis in his sweater, snowed in until the National Guard heavy equipment cleared the street.

For me it wasn't that eventful. I lived north of Boston along the 128 beltway. Some of my coworkers were marooned on the southern part of the highway overnight, though. I know they started carrying emergency packs in their car with space age blankets, food, etc. (thank you, space program!)

It's easy to forget the bad parts over time. God bless to the heroes of the Coast Guard and the "Can do." Has the CG commissioned another ship in that name, I wonder?

[Maceman]

I remember National Guard troops blocking off the major intersections leading to Boston in my Brighton neighborhood (just over the Boston proper line).

Although the whole event was kind of fun for a while, that image of the troops in their trucks always stuck with me. I could always imagine from that experience what it would feel like to live in a city under martial law. Chilling (now poun intended).

Of course, back then I was a mere yewt of 28 living in student slum apartment housing. Now, at 52 and having a house, a wife and a 4-year old child to take care of, I think if it happened today the whole experience would be considerably less charming.

[syriacus]

Soon after the storm, I was climbing snowmounds with a pack on my back, walking to town to get foods and medication. The roads were impassable.

I was the only member of my family of five (3 children under 8) who did not have a "stomach" virus.

We weren't able to use our toilet more than just a little. Our rented house was not yet hooked up to the new sewer system and the amateur-built, almost-full cesspool had collapsed. The cesspool/"honey" trucks were being used to plow snow, so it took some time and quite a bit of pleading to get anyone to empty our cesspool.

All in all, one of the most memorable times of my life. We talk about it every winter.

[Maceman]

now poun intended = no pun intended.

[RepoGirl]

Where was I personally? I was in sunny south Florida, watching footage on the news. ;-)

My husband, Big Guy and Rusty 99, on the other hand, was living in Milton, Ma.

[Prodigal Daughter]

Someone else mentioned that there were actually TWO big snowstorms within a few weeks of each other that winter.

There were about 35 deaths in the one that hit the midwestern states in Jan. '78. This page has links to both, and even the storm that consequently hit Great Britain. Blizzard of '78 links