Remembering the Blizzard of '78

I'm going off track a bit to reminisce about an event that happened to me and a lot of people in New England thirty years ago this week. It will always be known as the Blizzard of '78.

On February 6, 1978, I was in the Boston Garden attending my first Beanpot tournament with a few of my friends from college. The Beanpot is an annual ritual in the Boston area pitting Northeastern, Harvard, Boston College and Boston University hockey teams in a two-day tournament held on the first two Mondays in February. Being from the Philadelphia area, college hockey was something new and exciting to me.

A few weeks before, it had snowed about 16 inches. I loved it. I went to college in New England primarily for the snow. I was a skier at the time and just couldn't wait to get to the slopes in the area. There was forecast for snow that day when we ventured out to the Garden but only a few inches.

In the first game, Harvard defeated Northeastern in overtime by the score of 4-3. The forecast had turned a bit and the snow was getting heavier outside. Near the end of the first period of the second game, the Garden made the announcement: "Boston is under a state of emergency and anyone taking mass transit should make plans to leave early."

What? State of emergency? For a little snow? But BU was putting a thrashing on BC? Nah, we'll wait it out.

The final score was BU 12, BC 5. By that time, we were so giddy by our classmates victory. It was well after 11p when we got out and decided, who needs the T (Boston's public transportation) anyway? We'll just walk home. It was only around three miles to the dorm. It had to have been the longest walk in my life.

When we started out, the snow was knee deep. Not just on the sidewalk. Everywhere. We looked at each other and tried to figure the best way home. People who lived in the suburbs attending the game were stuck in the Garden (and would be for three days). We talked about walking through the subway tunnels to get home. Afterall, it was closed. But, I didn't want to because who knows if they were moving trolley cars around. So, we walked.

I honestly can't tell you how long it took us to get back to the dorm that night. But, I do remember literally walking those 3 miles in knee deep snow or higher for most of the way.

The snow lasted well into the night. When it finally stopped, the storm dumped 29 inches in Boston. With the previous storm the month before, there was close to 40 inches of snow on the ground. Boston was literally closed for a week. You would be fined $500 for driving a car in town. They tried to clear the streets but there was no place to put the snow. So, they wound up dumping it in either the Charles River or the ocean.

We lost heat, hot water and electricity for three days. It was partying the first night and suffering after that. The dorm we lived in didn't have a cafeteria. We had to walk about a half mile to another dorm to their cafeteria. But, we couldn't get there. Luckily, there was a convenience store up the block. But, the lines were out the door just to get even a jar of peanut butter. Once there was a path cleared to go to the cafeteria, we were fed by the National Guard for the week.

The ironic part about that whole experience was, since I was a freshman, I thought this was just a typical New England winter. If you read articles about it, you will understand the devastation of that storm. People were stranded for days on the highway. The tides were so high from the winds of that storm that towns along the ocean were annihilated. And, as I recall, the snow that winter didn't fully melt until sometime in May.

There are a lot of great articles on boston.com commemorating the Blizzard of '78. Here is a link to one of them talking about being stuck in the Boston Garden that day. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/02/03/marooned_at_the_garden_memories_of_78/

I wished I had some pictures to show you. I did take pictures that week but they were lost to a flood I had in my house years ago. But, I will always have the stories and the memories of that storm now 30 years ago.

(Note: Finally, I remembered to take my mini-cam to the Delaware River this weekend. The pictures below are on the towpath on the New Jersey side around the Lambertville area. They are not great but gives you an idea of what the area is like. I'll take more.
I did 11 miles comfortably on Saturday though I wound up with a backache, of all things, for the next two days. I think it was because the towpath was very soft from the heavy rain from the previous day. It was a lot like running in firm sand (which, for some reason, winds up hurting my back).
Thank you all for participating in the recent poll. I won't be putting up a new one this week. (Don't want to put one up for the sake of putting one up) The final tally was 45% of people read my blog because they think its thought-provoking and insightful (and I thank you for that), 27% was surprised it wasn't Phedippations, 18% said that despite knowing me, they still read the blog (hmmm??? I guess that's good) and 9% said they were a friend of mine and I made them read it. Now, I can take this information two ways--most people I know read it because they want to or I don't have many friends. You decide! :-) )

Congratulations to the New York Giants on a great Super Bowl!