Soapbox

Snow warnings

Ok, quick- what was happening 30 years ago today? No fair reading ahead: think January 26th 1978?
I was matching socks this morning and Ted was reading the paper when he
remarked, "Why is the Blizzard of ’78 rating front page, above-the-fold
coverage in the paper today?"
"Because… it was 30 years ago? Today?" I guessed.
"Even so…" he said, and I agreed. Slow news day, probably.

Then I read the story, and I have to admit, I never realized what a BIG deal it was! I was safely holed up in my dormitory, and I remember they canceled classes at OU for the first time since Kent State. My mother trekked to campus the next day to bring me snow boots, (the only women’s size 8 left in town, she informed me) dry-roasted peanuts and NyQuil. (I had a cold) Later I followed the train tracks home and got myself a snow shovel and cleared a path from Brown Hall to Nelson Commons, and so was a very popular girl that day. We had fun in all that lovely snow, (I seem to recall stories of some massive snowball fights, and of course sledding down Jeff Hill) which was unusual for Athens. But what was the big deal? My friends and I all thought it was a bit of an adventure, nothing more. Ted remembers it pretty much the same way.

Apparently, Athens was lucky. According to the paper, the barometric pressure that day fell as low as it gets during a hurricane, and while snow totals weren’t incredibly high, the wind was deadly. I read that a few barns and houses were brought down and 55 people died, 22 while trying to walk away from their stranded cars. People were stranded where they were for days, (a guy was trapped for 5 days in his truck cab near Mansfield) the National Guard had to airlift supplies, and drop food for livestock but still thousands of them were killed. And several species of birds (including the Carolina wren, a favorite for sentimental reasons) were nearly wiped out in Ohio. Wow!

A friend told me a harrowing tale of trying to drive from Cleveland to Columbus that day and following behind a snowplow on I-71 until the snowplow got stuck. Yeah. Now you or I would say "OK God- I get the message" and find a warm place to pull over and wait it out, but being a 19 year old idiot (is there another kind of 19 year old?) this guy turned around, drove north, cut over to 77 and went on south that way! I am never letting my kids drive in the snow again! Another friend whose husband was at school in Rhode Island remembers 51 inches of snow and having to jump out second story windows to get out of the dorms. I confess, I simply cannot fathom that much snow. This is what a lifetime of winters in southern and central Ohio will do to a person.

Well, we’ve had a couple of really cold days (it was 3 above Thursday morning- eek!) but not even enough snow to really have fun in. (I admit, now that I don’t have young’ins to make snow forts with, no snow has quite the fun potential it used to have. Still, I like shoveling, perhaps for the same reason I like moving around rocks in a stream) Last night Ted and I went to Panera for dinner and then he had a bike club meeting. I stayed around and sat by the fire there and did some knitting and tried to get the heat to seep as far into my bones as possible. If I could just do that every night from now til March, winter would be much more pleasant.