For East Coast USA residents only

Myself, I was unavoidably drunk at the time. So don't expect any great reminiscences. That's your job.

I was at home hoping that the evening's N.Y.C. Ballet performance would not be cancelled. (It wasn't.) Life went on for me close to normal. It was not nearly as disruptive for me as a storm in the 50's when there was less snow, but a lot of freezing rain which toppled branches and overhead electricity delivery wires causing the longest lasting power outage in New Jersey ever. Thank goodness for a working fireplace and a large emergency supply of logs.

I was working, in the advertising division of Gilettes in South Boston and we got word that the storm was rolling up the coast line and we were let out early and I drove into Boston proper and put my station wagon in a parking garage in Park Square and trudged through the growing storm to Beacon Street and stopped at the Hampshire House (home of Cheers), met up with some friends and we stayed and drank until closing. I do not remember walking through the storm from the Hampshire House to my apartment on Beacon Hill that night. Boston was shut down for a week and I didn't have to go to work. Every morning I would get up and go to the store for the elderly women in my building and get their milk and bread. There were eight foot mounds of plowed snow on either side of the street and the kids used the steep incliine of our street for a ski slope.
It wasn't all that unpleasant in the city. All but emergecy vehicles were banned.

Friends of mine on the South Shore weren't so lucky, in Hull, Ma. people were being taken out of their home by the coastguard, who helped them off their roofs into boats and they were taken to the highschool where the American Red Cross set up sleeping facilities. Homes were destroyed and the salt water damaged cars. It was unbelievable.

I'll never forget the Blizzard of 78, I still have a bumper sticker that says

- - - - - - - - - - - -I survived the Blizzard of 78'" - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I was home from school - SNOWDAY!

I was a teenager on Long Island. We had a power outage, if I recall correctly, but I don't think it was as bad as the ice storm outage from what I think was the previous year. Stayed in and didn't go to school, I think.

I lived in Acton MA at the time. Cars were totally covered, just antennas sticking up out of the snow drifts. I never could figure out how the snow plows piled the snow up so high in the paking lots. To my 10 y.o. eyes those piles were veritable mountains.

That was our last winter in New York.

We lived in a mobile home then (on Long Island) and were pretty much trapped inside because of the snowdrift that had completely covered the steps and half the front door.

I was living in Southern CT at the time and I spent the entire length of the storm driving around in a pickup truck plowing snow.

My best friend's dad had a snow plowing business and basically, if you could drive at the time he was hiring so I helped him out. He had contracts with several cemeteries and smaller retail stores so we drove around for 3 days straight doing nothing but plowing snow.

As we went from place to place people would flag us down and beg us to plow their driveways. We came up with a set rate of $10 and had at it. When we plowed one we'd leave 10 or 15 business cards with them and usually their neighbors would start calling within an hour or so. Half the time they'd come over while you were plowing one driveway and you'd have 5 more to do by the time you got done with the first one.

All the state highways and roads were closed and you weren't allowed out unless you were in a 4WD vehicle (which weren't all that popular back then..). The State police pulled us over a few times and asked us to transport hospital workers to/from work and we made quite a few of those runs...

I must have slept for a week after that storm... lol

I remember walking down Huntington Ave. one or two days later and suddenly realizing that I was walking on tops of cars. The cars parked along the street had been, first, snowed under, then plowed in by the plows clearing runways for ambulances and other emergency vehicles. Nobody was getting towed, just plowed in. I didn't realize I was walking on the tops of the cars, with snow underfoot, until I saw an unusually long whip anetnna sticking up out of the ground in front of me.

listening very quietly and politely

Will you please stop whispering sweet nothings in my ear, ehBeth? It's very distracting.

i'm not whispering, i'm listening!

[Only listening - and thinking loudly: "If Washington DC was situated on the East Coast, I had to listen to some more accurate responses!"
February 3, 1978

I remember seeing news images of those people unburrying their cars.

[size=7]hmmmmm -well the president's 1:03 call from senator javits (NY) could not be completed - due to the storm perhaps?[/size]

Speak up, I can't hear you listening

Was in D.C. at that time and it was my first real snow experience. I was at home the day the day the storm started and it snowed all day and I was loved wathching the snow fall. The next day was a federal holiday and of course I was home. I got up early and when I opened the front door to get the morning paper there was two feet of snow blocking the screen door. Later that morning the snow stopped and we all went out to play. I hate to admit this but one of the first things we did was put our two California cats out in it to see how the reacted. Hmmm, not well at all.

The next day the federal government was closed as no one could get to work, my first day off because of snow.

Boston's major bypass, 128, turned into a parking lot.

Annapolis, Maryland , but I don't even remember it. I probably didn't get out of bed. No classes!