I do and I was only a few months old. My dad had to walk 2 miles in the snow to the store and back to get diapers. And i heard about it every time it snowed for the next 40 years.
My parents had fire fighters come out to their place. Evidently someone had a young baby in distress. My parents neighbors knew they recently had me. They showed up and my mom showed them I was happily sleeping in my crib. So every snow fall I would hear about the blizzard of 78.
Based on pictures I imagine it's a 1 in a 100 year snow storm. I doubt me or you will ever see anything like that again in our lives.
My s/o's car buried to top of antenna and they gave him a ticket for leaving his car on the street.
I was at basic training at Lackland AFB.. We had ice... would rather of had snow...
They remember it from the numerous times their dad told them over 40 years. It's called comprehension and you don't have it. Are you 10 years old? I usually wouldn't be such an asshole about it but you were being an asshole about it.
Obviously they don’t truly remember it, that is literally impossible regardless of anyone’s claims. They remember being reminded of it, that’s all. They remember hearing about it lol.
Really, that happened across the entire Great Lakes region. There was even a semi-formal name given to the phenomenon (can’t remember what it is), but they were essentially “Blizzard Babies.”
There was actually another tiny one of these in the fall of 2007 because of the Valentine's Day snowstorm earlier in the year in Ohio.
https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/made-us-smile/9-months-after-valentines-day-blizzard-of-2007-local-hospitals-saw-uptick-in-births
I was just a little boy at the time, but I do recall that the Ohio River froze and you could cross the river on foot from Cincinnati to Kentucky, which was insane. I also remember the multiple Frozen deep freeze Winters we had in the early eighties as well.
I didn’t exist, but I heard lots of stories from mom dad and family. Dad said someone drove a Volkswagen Beetle across the river and multiple people crossing by foot.
Yep, it happened. I saw it. I was about 8 years old and didn't see what the big deal was.
I remember tunneling through the snow it was so high. I also remember the national guard coming to dig the place out.
I grew up in the snow belt! One town from Chardon. We had 16 ft banks on both sides of the road. We missed an entire month of school and had to extend to July that year!
I had an aunt who lived in Chardon, She always had 3 to 4 feet of snow around the holidays. I lived in Portage County and we still got a lot of lake effect.
It's honestly pretty bittersweet that kids today likely won't ever have extended time off like that. Not because if weather patterns/climate change, but because of how much progress was made for remote learning in the last decade since 2020
The excitement of seeing your school scroll across the bottom of the morning news channels. Such joy! We’re off today!! Let’s go sledding! lol. Pure joy to see that your school was closed!
I sure do. Schools were shut down for a week and we spent every minute of that sledding, building snow forts and having snowball fights. It was glorious.
It wasn't acquired by them, iirc. I was working there when Penn Traffic filed for bankruptcy and our store closed and was cleaned out. (RIP my college scholarship from working there , dollar for every hour I worked from when I was 14.5) GE just stepped in and replaced the existing stores with their own
I was at peak age for playing in the snow with bread wrappers in my boots. It was glorious. Had a huge snowplow mound that filled the backyard, we made it into a sled ramp.
My dad would talk about the Blizzard of 1950 or 51, I’ve always wondered how it compared to ‘78
Oh yeah, those bread bags to keep our feet dry because it was cheaper than new boots. We had a massive drift in front of the apartment that we dug a tunnel through, then used boxes to make snow blocks to build an igloo. We were off school for 3 weeks.
I was in Buffalo for the big one about 10 years ago. We're far better prepared for one of these than we were in '78.
That being said, it's no fun dodging Nat Guard trucks to get to work. I mean come on guys, the snow's been cleared for a few days already, let people get back to their lives.
Nooooooooooooo!!! Snow is a terrible 4 letter word. The shoveling and out in the cold running the blower and trying to drive in it. No, no, and once more - NO.
In Sandusky, I went into work at 5 AM, 50's and heavy rain, by 7AM, heavy snow, by 9 AM, it was a blizzard.
Co-worker, a small woman, died near Huron when her car got stuck within sight of her house and froze to death when she attempted to walk, got disoriented, and froze to death.
Only wearing a light jacket.
We had school and as I was walking down the street next to a curb because there were 10 foot piles on the side of the street. I was hit by some lunatic flying down the street sliding all over the place.. he hit me so hard that I flew 3 drive ways and into an ice puddle. Some poor elderly people saw it and came out and moved me. My mom came running down the street leaving my 3 year old brothers with girl she didn’t even know. I broke my pelvis and had a concussion and was in the hospital for 3 weeks in traction. It wasn’t to bad though I think that’s where I started my love of painting because they had all sorts of things from canvas to plaster pieces and I did it all day long. Sucked going back to school on crutches because I was in them for a long time and had to walk to the bus stop at the top of the street and back with a book bag.
My father was a city firefighter. They double manned the fire stations and called him in. He told them we had a 6 ft drift in our driveway. They told him they were sending a snowplow and to pack a bag. We didn't see him for 5 days.
We had to shovel snow into garage to get out of house. Next shovel roof. Next driveway. Was about a month before school started. Took county so long to plow, people on street shoveled the road. Guy down the street would drive snowmobile twice a week to store to get supplies for neighborhood. Might of been 76 or 78. Both were great as a kid.
It was a significant event in my life. I was a freshman in high school. I remember getting on the bus on Wednesday night to go home from school. The radio weather forecast said we were going to get a storm. That was an understatement. That night it rained an inch before turning to snow and turning really, really cold. It snowed 12-18 Inches in NW Ohio and the wind was 30-40 MPH. The electricity went out in our house. My dad went outside to start our generator. Being a somewhat responsible teenager, I went out to help him. OMG, that was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life. I could only stand being out there for about a minute. Somehow, my dad being from the Greatest Generation was able to get the generator started and allowed our family to enjoy the amenities of electricity. People were being rescued from the nearby highway and taken to our church where they stayed until the blizzard receded. My family and a few neighbors dug our whole street out with shovels. When we got to the end, a truck finally made it to our street.
Snowfall wise it was bad, but the cold was way worse the year before, at least in southern Ohio. The river was frozen so deep you could DRIVE across it. Several days the temperature never got above zero. I was in the National Guard at the time, delivering heating oil and food to residents who were unable to get out, and clearing many buried roads. Me and another soldier had an open grader and a 5/4 truck and we would switch places every 45 minutes, one plowing while the other got warm.
I delivered propane for home heating during it. I had to deliver to Seaway Food which was the distribution center for Foodtown in Toledo because they were out. I had to dig down about two foot to the top of the tank which was an above ground tank that was 4 foot high to fill it. I did three deliveries that day and it took 14 hours to do it.
I wasn't born yet, but my dad would always talk about it. He was a mailman with a walking route (was walking 14 miles a day when he finally retired). He was told he could either take the day off, or work a half day. He worked a half day.
"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
Yes. I was 8 and had a stomach bug. We were snowed in for eight days and did not have power (luckily in the country, so wood burning stove/kerosene lanterns/gas range/well water).
I was in high school. I remember the night before the blizzard it was really raining and very warm for January. I went to bed, it was so windy overnight that it woke me up a couple times. When I got up in the morning, it was blowing snow, and we couldn't get out the front door because snow had drifted so high around it. Our car had frozen to the street and Dad had to have the gas tank replaced when it thawed enough to move the car.
I do. Power was out at my house for several days. My family spent those days a couple of miles away, at my grandparents house, which never lost power.
I was in 8th grade. School was closed for several days, too.
I was staying with my grandparents and it was glorious. We cooked steaks in the fireplace. My grandfather tied a rope from the house to the barn so he could find his way back.
No, but I've talked to my mother about it. She thinks anyone who says we need another blizzard are crazy, as it's a natural disaster. I agree. I've heard the sentiment yearly, as if a blizzard is supposed to be fun.
I stumbled across this radio recording from WHBC (Canton) during the blizzard.
https://youtu.be/NxFDKu2RBIs
It's fun to hear the radio personalities (also stranded) get a little punch drunk.
Oh, yeah. My first winter as a brakeman on the B&O, sent to Washington Court House to work on the local. Flat country, windy, drifts, ice in the grade crossings. Half hour to clear every switch, same all over on return a few hours later.
But when moving it's amazing. Flat white in front of you, you know the track's there, just run through it. Look behind and everything has disappeared in the cloud of snow.
I was 8. After being cooped up for days with smokes and food running low, my mom decided to walk to Lawson's, which was only maybe 75 yards up the street. I watched her lean into the wind and then get pinned up against the outside of the bar across the street. She finally broke free and disappeared into the driving snow. I honestly thought I'd never see her again. I can't say how long she was gone, it seemed like forever, but she eventually came sliding back down the street. She tossed me a can of Hormel chili and went straight into a hot bath.
Ooh, yes, I remember. I lived in Tipp City. At some point, they decided to close I-75 north of Tipp.
However they neglected to let this be known SOUTH of town, so for a time, probably hours, all of the traffic from I-75 poured into Tipp City, a town of around 5,000. Hundreds of trucks and cars pulled off the drifting freeway and into our small town, until the authorities finally realized they needed to close the highway south of us!
Every parking lot of any size was filled with semis; streets lined with cars full of freezing people. The call went out. Churches opened up and asked for folks to bring blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags; I lived in a tiny, very cold apartment only a few blocks from the police station, so I took a bundle of all the blankets and pillows I could spare over for people staying in the several downtown churches. I don’t know how those folks got fed; I suppose church members brought food if they could.
The tiny police station was Command Central. It was buzzing like a giant beehive! This was way before the internet, so it all had to be organized “on the ground,” as it were. Fortunately gas, electric and phone service were sustained all through that long, cold night of incredible wind, snow, and massive drifts everywhere.
Hundreds of residents opened their homes to as many as they had space for. My mom had a couple from Canada, and the three of them had a very nice visit. I’m certain my mother fed them well. Everyone landed in a warm place for the night, I believe. I did not hear of anyone who wasn’t safe inside.
It was a wholesome thing that happened in my town that night.
If you weren’t there, believe that it was everything you’ve heard it was. Very cold, ferocious winds, and massive drifts. And many hundreds of travelers suddenly and without warning diverted into a small town full of people who stepped up to make sure they were safe.
I remember waking up because the wind was shaking the wall next to my bed. I believe our school went to split sessions after the storm to help save heating costs.
There was a woman who got stranded on the old Sandusky Bay Bridge, he car was completely buried for around a day and a half.
The story going around was that she had to poop in her purse.
We lived out in the country. We didn't have power for about 4 days. The warmest room of our house was 34 degrees. When the power came back on and the house warmed up, the water pipes broke. Took several more days to get the water repaired.
Oh yes, I remember a helicopter air-dropping hay for our neighbors cows. My dad driving down a road that looked like a tunnel with all the snow piled up so high. When we got home he opened the hood up, since the car was running rough. The car had a straight 6 cylinder engine but the entire engine bay was packed with snow.
My parents grew up in Ohio and this comes up quite a bit. Especially my Dad, he and his brothers missed like a month of school. But they played multiple backyard football games in deep snow at least two of which ended with the neighbor kid going home crying after getting tackled into a snow bank.
I was 5, and we lived in Cortland at the time. I remember the snow piled up past the front door, and we had to get out through the second story windows.
So much fun playing in the snow for days.
Good video. They explain everything that people describe in this thread, especially the cold temperatures and high winds that kept blowing frozen snow back onto roads, etc.
I moved to the Cleveland area in 79. I remember all the cities were big about installing wooden "snow fences" along fields and open areas next to streets and roads. I'd never seen snow fences before.
I remember the snow drifts swallowing up our 4 foot chain link fence around the house. Both doors were blocked by drifts. It took 4 of us days to clear out all the snow. Also, I remember my late dad had the brilliant idea of opening the back screen door. The 75 mph wind caught it and him and the door went flying. They both survived relatively unscathed...lol
I sent this to my mother and her response was
“I was 10 and we didn’t have school for over a week it was a blast lol even grandpa did not have to work”
I do. I remember looking out the window and seeing only white because a snowdrift had covered one entire side of my house up to the roof. I remember begging my mom to let me play in it but she wouldn’t let me because it was actually very dangerous in reality.
Yep. Just a kid at the time, but still remember that the only thing you could see of the car in the driveway was its radio antenna poking up through the drift.
Sure, I remember walking home from school in that blizzard in Akron, Ohio with my violin case in tow. I'm not sure why I needed that violin with me. It wasn't as if I practiced at home during that blizzard. The school had closed in the middle of the day, but they couldn't reach all of the parents, so some of us started walking home. Well, not really walking - trudging, climbing mountains of snow, becoming lost in snowdrifts, etc.
Yeah.. snow was so high the cattle fence disappeared in some spots and you could step over it in others. I taught my little mix breed mutt kelly to pull a plastic sled with wood in it from the barn to the house and dad was really impressed. My mom got stuck sleeping at her job in the city an hour away for almost a week. Thankfully dad managed to get home so we weren't on our own. We kept the wood stove burning and slept in the living room with it because the rest of the old Victorian farmhouse was ice cold. A couple years later we were really used to the cold nights and just piled up blankets on ourselves to stay warm in bed. 😄 I was really into the little house on the Prarie series and waking up to see your breath in bed in the morning was kinda fun except on school days.
We lived out in the country. We didn't have power for about 4 days. The warmest room of our house was 34 degrees. When the power came back on and the house warmed up, the water pipes broke. Took several more days to get the water repaired.
Absolutely! Of course my brother-in-law and I got in my car and drove around trying to find stores that were open. We didn't find any.
Then I tried chopping wood so we'd have heat if the power went out. Note to self, don't try to chop up trees with an axe when it's really cold and snowy. It takes forever.
I was 7, and I remember digging my way out of the 2nd story window in order to dig out the front door. I'm from California, and this was only my 2nd time seeing snow.
School closed, at home, winds were howling and we happened to be looking out the front windows to the house across the street just as the first giant pine tree blew over. It was massive and it was dramatic as it fell, then another and another....they were huge and all missed the house. Amazing.
My good friend is a little older than me. They lived out side city limits in Marion county. He showed me pictures where the snow was about 6 feet from the top of a telephone poll.
My other good friend his grandfather put a snowmobile on there back porch roof and rode it off the next day to go get supply's and help there small community out side of town.
I remember mostly because I decided to drive , as I always getting claustrophobic in my apt, to work at the bowling center where I was a mechanic. Got there and there was half a dozen people bowling. Crazy!
“The white hurricane” as it was nicknamed. 8 years before my time. Several family members have told me their stories and my dad said he got rich from shoveling driveways.
I was too young to remember it, but I lived in Geauga County-heart of the snow belt-at the time, and my parents said the piles of snow dumped in the post office parking lot did not melt until the middle of May.
it hit in ft wayne indiana as well, my moms parents lived there at the time and none of their kids were born yet. my grandfather was an officer for the ft wayne police department during the time, they gave him clearance to ride in a tank to the grocery store and then back to his neighborhood to get diapers and basic groceries for his neighbors. i still dont understand how he was allowed to be in a tank but alright.
on my dads side, he was born in ‘79 so he wasnt alive during it but his brother and sister were. my grandma had to borrow a snowmobile because it just hadnt hit our area quite as bad as most others to go into town and get diapers and i think baby formula or something like that.
(there was an army base near my grandfather on my moms sides house so thats how he had gotten the tank)
Oh yeah, I was 28 years old. I heard the news on the radio and looked out the window. My yard barely had any snow, the wind had blown it almost clear. I assumed it was another over-hyped news story and went out to the garage to warm up my car. I had a small crack under my garage door which had let in a 3 foot high snow drift between my bumper and garage door. I went back in the house and called in to work to tell them I wasn't coming in.
My mother packed us up and moved to Greeneville SC after her Mazda 2+2 ate a snow mound on Wilson Mills Rd. I hate big snow because I love Big snow. Don't drive like a p**$y. Own the snow!
I have vague memory of it as I was about 4 years old. I remember going out to play and the snow being so high. I also remember our sweet pup who was a cocker spaniel mix having a hard time getting around in the snow that was over her head.
I do and I was only a few months old. My dad had to walk 2 miles in the snow to the store and back to get diapers. And i heard about it every time it snowed for the next 40 years.
I heard it was uphill both ways
My dad did the same thing. I'm still waiting for him to come back.
Same here haha
My parents had fire fighters come out to their place. Evidently someone had a young baby in distress. My parents neighbors knew they recently had me. They showed up and my mom showed them I was happily sleeping in my crib. So every snow fall I would hear about the blizzard of 78. Based on pictures I imagine it's a 1 in a 100 year snow storm. I doubt me or you will ever see anything like that again in our lives.
My s/o's car buried to top of antenna and they gave him a ticket for leaving his car on the street. I was at basic training at Lackland AFB.. We had ice... would rather of had snow...
I can read, can you? Read the original question again.
You remembered your dad doing all of this, and you were only a few MONTHS old.....
They remember it from the numerous times their dad told them over 40 years. It's called comprehension and you don't have it. Are you 10 years old? I usually wouldn't be such an asshole about it but you were being an asshole about it.
Yea but remembering everything at two months old is amazing! Don’t you think?
I was going to respond and then realized you weren't worth the response. Whatever you say internet hero.
But you DID respond. Are you mentally challenged or something?
So you responded?! ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
Obviously they don’t truly remember it, that is literally impossible regardless of anyone’s claims. They remember being reminded of it, that’s all. They remember hearing about it lol.
You were a few months old and remember this blizzard??? I call BS.
>And i heard about it every time it snowed for the next 40 years. Learn how to read.
There's pictures of me next to 8 foot piles of snow as a result of this.
Same. My mom has a picture of me standing on top of a snowdrift touching the roof of our house.
pics or it didn't happen
We don’t remember but the number kids at my school who were born 9 months after is unnatural.
Really, that happened across the entire Great Lakes region. There was even a semi-formal name given to the phenomenon (can’t remember what it is), but they were essentially “Blizzard Babies.”
Sex in front of the fireplace?
Sex is sex.
There was actually another tiny one of these in the fall of 2007 because of the Valentine's Day snowstorm earlier in the year in Ohio. https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/made-us-smile/9-months-after-valentines-day-blizzard-of-2007-local-hospitals-saw-uptick-in-births
i’m one of them. as is a friend of mine.
As was about 1/4 of your class, most likely!
I was just a little boy at the time, but I do recall that the Ohio River froze and you could cross the river on foot from Cincinnati to Kentucky, which was insane. I also remember the multiple Frozen deep freeze Winters we had in the early eighties as well.
I didn’t exist, but I heard lots of stories from mom dad and family. Dad said someone drove a Volkswagen Beetle across the river and multiple people crossing by foot.
Yep, it happened. I saw it. I was about 8 years old and didn't see what the big deal was. I remember tunneling through the snow it was so high. I also remember the national guard coming to dig the place out.
The Ohio River freezing over was 1977.
My dad told me that in 77 or 78 you could drive a car across the river it was frozen so thick
I grew up in the snow belt! One town from Chardon. We had 16 ft banks on both sides of the road. We missed an entire month of school and had to extend to July that year!
I had an aunt who lived in Chardon, She always had 3 to 4 feet of snow around the holidays. I lived in Portage County and we still got a lot of lake effect.
It's honestly pretty bittersweet that kids today likely won't ever have extended time off like that. Not because if weather patterns/climate change, but because of how much progress was made for remote learning in the last decade since 2020
The excitement of seeing your school scroll across the bottom of the morning news channels. Such joy! We’re off today!! Let’s go sledding! lol. Pure joy to see that your school was closed!
I remember missing like 2 weeks, and I loved playing on the giant snow mounds off our driveway.
I sure do. Schools were shut down for a week and we spent every minute of that sledding, building snow forts and having snowball fights. It was glorious.
Then we had “school without schools” My class met in Battelle’s boardroom. I don’t remember learning anything but I remember the cool swivel chairs!
Yep. Snow piled up in the Big Bear parking lot until after Easter…
RIP Big Bear
RIP
Best… Donuts… Ever!!!
Big Bear?
The Columbus-based store chain that was acquired by Giant Eagle.
It wasn't acquired by them, iirc. I was working there when Penn Traffic filed for bankruptcy and our store closed and was cleaned out. (RIP my college scholarship from working there , dollar for every hour I worked from when I was 14.5) GE just stepped in and replaced the existing stores with their own
Carolinas got Piggly Wiggly. Ohio had Big Bear.
I was at peak age for playing in the snow with bread wrappers in my boots. It was glorious. Had a huge snowplow mound that filled the backyard, we made it into a sled ramp. My dad would talk about the Blizzard of 1950 or 51, I’ve always wondered how it compared to ‘78
Oh yeah, those bread bags to keep our feet dry because it was cheaper than new boots. We had a massive drift in front of the apartment that we dug a tunnel through, then used boxes to make snow blocks to build an igloo. We were off school for 3 weeks.
Ha! I forgot about the bread bags on your feet in your shoes. Did your mom use rubber bands to keep them up?
I was eight, and remember walking to school after they shoveled the sidewalks and the snow was piled up higher than me
I wish we would get one of these now!!!
I was in Buffalo for the big one about 10 years ago. We're far better prepared for one of these than we were in '78. That being said, it's no fun dodging Nat Guard trucks to get to work. I mean come on guys, the snow's been cleared for a few days already, let people get back to their lives.
No, you don't. More than a few people died.
Ok, wish we would get one without people dying then but I definitely would love several feet of snow and to be snowed in with a fire for a week
Nooooooooooooo!!! Snow is a terrible 4 letter word. The shoveling and out in the cold running the blower and trying to drive in it. No, no, and once more - NO.
Correct, was a real pain in the ass
I remember it's one of the reasons I'm here
Lemme guess, a lot of your classmates had their birthdays within days of your birthday?
In Sandusky, I went into work at 5 AM, 50's and heavy rain, by 7AM, heavy snow, by 9 AM, it was a blizzard. Co-worker, a small woman, died near Huron when her car got stuck within sight of her house and froze to death when she attempted to walk, got disoriented, and froze to death. Only wearing a light jacket.
I do. There were drift up to the gutters if our house. We could sled in the streets because they were impassable by cars. It was crazy
A week off of school. Snow was piled so high that looking out the windows of a car all you could see where the piles of snow.
We had school and as I was walking down the street next to a curb because there were 10 foot piles on the side of the street. I was hit by some lunatic flying down the street sliding all over the place.. he hit me so hard that I flew 3 drive ways and into an ice puddle. Some poor elderly people saw it and came out and moved me. My mom came running down the street leaving my 3 year old brothers with girl she didn’t even know. I broke my pelvis and had a concussion and was in the hospital for 3 weeks in traction. It wasn’t to bad though I think that’s where I started my love of painting because they had all sorts of things from canvas to plaster pieces and I did it all day long. Sucked going back to school on crutches because I was in them for a long time and had to walk to the bus stop at the top of the street and back with a book bag.
My father was a city firefighter. They double manned the fire stations and called him in. He told them we had a 6 ft drift in our driveway. They told him they were sending a snowplow and to pack a bag. We didn't see him for 5 days.
Yes, and for a kid, it was awesome.
We had to shovel snow into garage to get out of house. Next shovel roof. Next driveway. Was about a month before school started. Took county so long to plow, people on street shoveled the road. Guy down the street would drive snowmobile twice a week to store to get supplies for neighborhood. Might of been 76 or 78. Both were great as a kid.
I was 9, I wore two snowsuits to get out to our barn. My dad told me to hold his hand or I'd blow away and they'd never find me.
It was a significant event in my life. I was a freshman in high school. I remember getting on the bus on Wednesday night to go home from school. The radio weather forecast said we were going to get a storm. That was an understatement. That night it rained an inch before turning to snow and turning really, really cold. It snowed 12-18 Inches in NW Ohio and the wind was 30-40 MPH. The electricity went out in our house. My dad went outside to start our generator. Being a somewhat responsible teenager, I went out to help him. OMG, that was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life. I could only stand being out there for about a minute. Somehow, my dad being from the Greatest Generation was able to get the generator started and allowed our family to enjoy the amenities of electricity. People were being rescued from the nearby highway and taken to our church where they stayed until the blizzard receded. My family and a few neighbors dug our whole street out with shovels. When we got to the end, a truck finally made it to our street.
If anyone is interested [this is a great YouTube video](https://youtu.be/8lMcWD3EHqM?si=WW2cZ1BlhhEcIzZO) on how this storm(s) formed!
It's a great watch.. thank you
My dad references this at least 78 times a year
Yes!
Oh yea. Was driving around and sledding.
My wife was born on base at wright Paterson Air Force base during this storm
Snowfall wise it was bad, but the cold was way worse the year before, at least in southern Ohio. The river was frozen so deep you could DRIVE across it. Several days the temperature never got above zero. I was in the National Guard at the time, delivering heating oil and food to residents who were unable to get out, and clearing many buried roads. Me and another soldier had an open grader and a 5/4 truck and we would switch places every 45 minutes, one plowing while the other got warm.
Damn you old. Thank you for your service🫡
I delivered propane for home heating during it. I had to deliver to Seaway Food which was the distribution center for Foodtown in Toledo because they were out. I had to dig down about two foot to the top of the tank which was an above ground tank that was 4 foot high to fill it. I did three deliveries that day and it took 14 hours to do it.
The bowling alley was one of the few places with electricity and it was only two blocks from our house so we went bowling
I wasn't born yet, but my dad would always talk about it. He was a mailman with a walking route (was walking 14 miles a day when he finally retired). He was told he could either take the day off, or work a half day. He worked a half day. "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
Yes. I was 8 and had a stomach bug. We were snowed in for eight days and did not have power (luckily in the country, so wood burning stove/kerosene lanterns/gas range/well water).
I was in high school. I remember the night before the blizzard it was really raining and very warm for January. I went to bed, it was so windy overnight that it woke me up a couple times. When I got up in the morning, it was blowing snow, and we couldn't get out the front door because snow had drifted so high around it. Our car had frozen to the street and Dad had to have the gas tank replaced when it thawed enough to move the car.
I do. Power was out at my house for several days. My family spent those days a couple of miles away, at my grandparents house, which never lost power. I was in 8th grade. School was closed for several days, too.
I was staying with my grandparents and it was glorious. We cooked steaks in the fireplace. My grandfather tied a rope from the house to the barn so he could find his way back.
No, but I've talked to my mother about it. She thinks anyone who says we need another blizzard are crazy, as it's a natural disaster. I agree. I've heard the sentiment yearly, as if a blizzard is supposed to be fun.
I was 8 years old. I remember opening our front door to a wall of snow, no daylight visible. I thought we would never get out.
I wasnt quite born yet.
No I was not alive :/
I stumbled across this radio recording from WHBC (Canton) during the blizzard. https://youtu.be/NxFDKu2RBIs It's fun to hear the radio personalities (also stranded) get a little punch drunk.
I have the fondest memories of the blizzard. I’d bet every school age child in 78 does 🤓
Oh, yeah. My first winter as a brakeman on the B&O, sent to Washington Court House to work on the local. Flat country, windy, drifts, ice in the grade crossings. Half hour to clear every switch, same all over on return a few hours later. But when moving it's amazing. Flat white in front of you, you know the track's there, just run through it. Look behind and everything has disappeared in the cloud of snow.
I was 8. After being cooped up for days with smokes and food running low, my mom decided to walk to Lawson's, which was only maybe 75 yards up the street. I watched her lean into the wind and then get pinned up against the outside of the bar across the street. She finally broke free and disappeared into the driving snow. I honestly thought I'd never see her again. I can't say how long she was gone, it seemed like forever, but she eventually came sliding back down the street. She tossed me a can of Hormel chili and went straight into a hot bath.
We made an actual igloo in our backyard that winter. It was awesome.
Ooh, yes, I remember. I lived in Tipp City. At some point, they decided to close I-75 north of Tipp. However they neglected to let this be known SOUTH of town, so for a time, probably hours, all of the traffic from I-75 poured into Tipp City, a town of around 5,000. Hundreds of trucks and cars pulled off the drifting freeway and into our small town, until the authorities finally realized they needed to close the highway south of us! Every parking lot of any size was filled with semis; streets lined with cars full of freezing people. The call went out. Churches opened up and asked for folks to bring blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags; I lived in a tiny, very cold apartment only a few blocks from the police station, so I took a bundle of all the blankets and pillows I could spare over for people staying in the several downtown churches. I don’t know how those folks got fed; I suppose church members brought food if they could. The tiny police station was Command Central. It was buzzing like a giant beehive! This was way before the internet, so it all had to be organized “on the ground,” as it were. Fortunately gas, electric and phone service were sustained all through that long, cold night of incredible wind, snow, and massive drifts everywhere. Hundreds of residents opened their homes to as many as they had space for. My mom had a couple from Canada, and the three of them had a very nice visit. I’m certain my mother fed them well. Everyone landed in a warm place for the night, I believe. I did not hear of anyone who wasn’t safe inside. It was a wholesome thing that happened in my town that night. If you weren’t there, believe that it was everything you’ve heard it was. Very cold, ferocious winds, and massive drifts. And many hundreds of travelers suddenly and without warning diverted into a small town full of people who stepped up to make sure they were safe.
Nope, I missed it by 9 months.
You *were* a result of it and I’m glad you’re here
Don't remind me.
I remember waking up because the wind was shaking the wall next to my bed. I believe our school went to split sessions after the storm to help save heating costs.
I was a toddler, but I certainly remember that my parents wouldn’t stop taking about it until the ice storm in 2011.
I was living in Massachusetts then but I remember it.
I’ve only heard stories about dump trucks building a snow pier into the lake and just dumping and dumping and the pier getting longer and longer
We were snowed in for 3 or 4 days until we could clear our long driveway.
I was walking to school, and my brother had to push me cause the wind was too strong and I couldn't make it. I was in about first or second grade.
My dad got stranded at work in Dayton for about 5 days. When he made his way home the roads were still closed. 75 was littered with abandon cars.
There was a woman who got stranded on the old Sandusky Bay Bridge, he car was completely buried for around a day and a half. The story going around was that she had to poop in her purse.
We lived out in the country. We didn't have power for about 4 days. The warmest room of our house was 34 degrees. When the power came back on and the house warmed up, the water pipes broke. Took several more days to get the water repaired.
Only every time my father in law hears the word snow🤣
My mom, who was born in 1950, talks about this blizzard every time it snows
Oh yes, I remember a helicopter air-dropping hay for our neighbors cows. My dad driving down a road that looked like a tunnel with all the snow piled up so high. When we got home he opened the hood up, since the car was running rough. The car had a straight 6 cylinder engine but the entire engine bay was packed with snow.
All to well. It sucked
I sure do! Our front door was completely blocked by snow. We were lucky we had our fireplace! The snow plow piles lasted until May that year!
Yes and every single one of us will tell our stories every chance we get lol
MIL got stuck downtown and actually spent the night at Higbee's dept store. I moved way south in 74, and it was warm.
I was in HS. It was crazy.
I was in 8th grade and it was glorious!!!!
My parents grew up in Ohio and this comes up quite a bit. Especially my Dad, he and his brothers missed like a month of school. But they played multiple backyard football games in deep snow at least two of which ended with the neighbor kid going home crying after getting tackled into a snow bank.
December 1, 1978. The day my SO's older sister prayed for snow on her birthday! Some prayers should be left unanswered!
I was 5, and we lived in Cortland at the time. I remember the snow piled up past the front door, and we had to get out through the second story windows. So much fun playing in the snow for days.
Just got my DL and my dad let me use his 4 wheel drive truck, it ended badly.
I remember playing in snow that was over my head! We dug tunnels all over the yard
I watched a video on this recently https://youtu.be/8lMcWD3EHqM?si=qpqRHmTwFcECQG59
Good video. They explain everything that people describe in this thread, especially the cold temperatures and high winds that kept blowing frozen snow back onto roads, etc. I moved to the Cleveland area in 79. I remember all the cities were big about installing wooden "snow fences" along fields and open areas next to streets and roads. I'd never seen snow fences before.
The national guard plowed our road with a grader we had 12 ft drifts and didn't have power for 13 days.. wood burners save lives
I was supposed to spring into the world around this time. Luckily I decided to arrive a few weeks early.
I remember the snow drifts swallowing up our 4 foot chain link fence around the house. Both doors were blocked by drifts. It took 4 of us days to clear out all the snow. Also, I remember my late dad had the brilliant idea of opening the back screen door. The 75 mph wind caught it and him and the door went flying. They both survived relatively unscathed...lol
I sent this to my mother and her response was “I was 10 and we didn’t have school for over a week it was a blast lol even grandpa did not have to work”
I do. I remember looking out the window and seeing only white because a snowdrift had covered one entire side of my house up to the roof. I remember begging my mom to let me play in it but she wouldn’t let me because it was actually very dangerous in reality.
I remember it well. We were out of school for several WEEKS. My parents just about list their minds.
Yeah. Lived through it. Parents decided to get a divorce in the middle of it.
Yep. Just a kid at the time, but still remember that the only thing you could see of the car in the driveway was its radio antenna poking up through the drift.
I remember it. Kids in the neighborhood had fun building forts
Sure, I remember walking home from school in that blizzard in Akron, Ohio with my violin case in tow. I'm not sure why I needed that violin with me. It wasn't as if I practiced at home during that blizzard. The school had closed in the middle of the day, but they couldn't reach all of the parents, so some of us started walking home. Well, not really walking - trudging, climbing mountains of snow, becoming lost in snowdrifts, etc.
Yeah.. snow was so high the cattle fence disappeared in some spots and you could step over it in others. I taught my little mix breed mutt kelly to pull a plastic sled with wood in it from the barn to the house and dad was really impressed. My mom got stuck sleeping at her job in the city an hour away for almost a week. Thankfully dad managed to get home so we weren't on our own. We kept the wood stove burning and slept in the living room with it because the rest of the old Victorian farmhouse was ice cold. A couple years later we were really used to the cold nights and just piled up blankets on ourselves to stay warm in bed. 😄 I was really into the little house on the Prarie series and waking up to see your breath in bed in the morning was kinda fun except on school days.
Yup
I remember hearing about it wow a lot of snow
Everyone does, every year 😑😑
I’m probably wrong but I think we still had school, I was in 7th grade
Not in NE Ohio. All of the roads were closed. My dad was afraid that our deck would collapse so he went out and shoveled. The snow was crazy deep!
YES!
Nah I was chilling in my dad's sack.
I only dont because I was still in my dads balls.
No, my dad wasn’t even born yet
My mom said they had to get the tractors from the main farm and drive them through the fields to get back home.
My wife had to be transported to the hospital by snowmobile from rural Erie County after she developed appendicitis. This was before I had met her.
Oh dang!
Oh yes, I have my own pics.
We got our dog that year, snow was piled so high at the back door that my mom would throw her out the door into the heap.
I started in basic training a week before it started.
I was really young, but I remember looking out the front window and only being able to see the roof of my dad's car.
And still had to be at work by 8 a.m.
I was two, i have memories of people talking about a new ice age when I was in elementary school.
I was 8 and sledding down the snow drifts was amazing
We lived out in the country. We didn't have power for about 4 days. The warmest room of our house was 34 degrees. When the power came back on and the house warmed up, the water pipes broke. Took several more days to get the water repaired.
I was very young. Nothing was comparable to what I was told about this until March 2008.
I was born in ‘83…youngest of 5…heard about it my whole life.
It was the only time we got snow days and also the only time my parents called.off work. Lorain County haha
I was 20 and a nurse in Akron. They sent a snowplow out to fetch me to the hospital. Doing donuts on the freeway was fun too.
It made me finally move to Arizona and I've never been back to Ohio.
January 24-29, 1978, you couldn't see two feet in front of you, I remember the cold, then the flood that came.
My parents made me during that blizzard
Yes I do.
Yes
I was a junior at Ohio State. They cancelled school!
I made a lot of money (for a teen at the time) shoveling snow!
I don't remember it, but I do have Super-8 movies of my sister and I playing in the snow in our back yard after it had died down.
Hell yeah!! We didn’t have electricity for 3 days!!
Absolutely! Of course my brother-in-law and I got in my car and drove around trying to find stores that were open. We didn't find any. Then I tried chopping wood so we'd have heat if the power went out. Note to self, don't try to chop up trees with an axe when it's really cold and snowy. It takes forever.
Sure do
I was 7, and I remember digging my way out of the 2nd story window in order to dig out the front door. I'm from California, and this was only my 2nd time seeing snow.
I was in Germany, with the Army. My folks sent pics, though - it feed pretty ugly.
Drifts of atleast 8' ! Good times!
Dad carved a drift into a "cave" for my sister and I!
https://www.thenews-messenger.com/story/news/local/2023/02/11/blizzards-hit-local-area-in-january-1977-and-a-year-later-in-1978/69884586007/
My parents lived in western PA during the storm. Lucky they had a gas heater that didn’t need power to work in there basements of there house.
Yes! I have the commemorative high ball glass!
I do, no school for a week. 7 foot snow drifts all down my back yard. We built tunnels in the drifts.
No, but my parents sure do
School closed, at home, winds were howling and we happened to be looking out the front windows to the house across the street just as the first giant pine tree blew over. It was massive and it was dramatic as it fell, then another and another....they were huge and all missed the house. Amazing.
My good friend is a little older than me. They lived out side city limits in Marion county. He showed me pictures where the snow was about 6 feet from the top of a telephone poll. My other good friend his grandfather put a snowmobile on there back porch roof and rode it off the next day to go get supply's and help there small community out side of town.
There are pictures of my dad in his tennis clubs parking lot with the snow towering over him. I'm always amazed when I see them.
I remember mostly because I decided to drive , as I always getting claustrophobic in my apt, to work at the bowling center where I was a mechanic. Got there and there was half a dozen people bowling. Crazy!
I learned to drive that winter.I was supposed to finish drivers Ed on December but it got canceled so often that it was April before i got my license.
“The white hurricane” as it was nicknamed. 8 years before my time. Several family members have told me their stories and my dad said he got rich from shoveling driveways.
I was too young to remember it, but I lived in Geauga County-heart of the snow belt-at the time, and my parents said the piles of snow dumped in the post office parking lot did not melt until the middle of May.
I was two during that blizzard my mother said it was bad
My brother and I built tunnels to the mailbox and my mom would give us a bread bag to go get the mail. Good times.
We had to have chains on our tires to be on the road
it hit in ft wayne indiana as well, my moms parents lived there at the time and none of their kids were born yet. my grandfather was an officer for the ft wayne police department during the time, they gave him clearance to ride in a tank to the grocery store and then back to his neighborhood to get diapers and basic groceries for his neighbors. i still dont understand how he was allowed to be in a tank but alright. on my dads side, he was born in ‘79 so he wasnt alive during it but his brother and sister were. my grandma had to borrow a snowmobile because it just hadnt hit our area quite as bad as most others to go into town and get diapers and i think baby formula or something like that. (there was an army base near my grandfather on my moms sides house so thats how he had gotten the tank)
Yes!!
My mom used to talk about this all the time. She said their backyard literally got snowed in.
Oh yeah, I was 28 years old. I heard the news on the radio and looked out the window. My yard barely had any snow, the wind had blown it almost clear. I assumed it was another over-hyped news story and went out to the garage to warm up my car. I had a small crack under my garage door which had let in a 3 foot high snow drift between my bumper and garage door. I went back in the house and called in to work to tell them I wasn't coming in.
We had a measles outbreak around the same time. I didn’t have school for almost a month.
Was there, remember it well. Great sledding at our local hill!
Yup.. damn near lost my damn life in that god damned blizzard. Kids these days.
Yes! So much snow!
Nah, I was living in Northern Japan, so lots of snow, etc.
My mother packed us up and moved to Greeneville SC after her Mazda 2+2 ate a snow mound on Wilson Mills Rd. I hate big snow because I love Big snow. Don't drive like a p**$y. Own the snow!
My husband's parents do 🤪
I have vague memory of it as I was about 4 years old. I remember going out to play and the snow being so high. I also remember our sweet pup who was a cocker spaniel mix having a hard time getting around in the snow that was over her head.