Blizzzzzzard 2011

Blizzard of 2011








Blizzard of '78

Many of us in Northern Indiana were hit with a "blizzard" on February 1st and 2nd. Now I'm not really questioning the meteorlogists, because they really know their stuff, but ... well, maybe I am. This little snowstorm, one of our local jounalists referred to it as Stormie, was fun and awarded the kids with a whole day off of school. I also was aware of an offer of a free cup of coffee at the local restaurant if you could make it to town on Wednesday morning. So about 10:00am I asked Abbi if she wanted an adventure, and off we went. On the way into town, bursting through small drifts and deep truck tracks, Alli called to see what was happening "out in the country" as she calls it. She lives in town and was blissfully innocent to all the turmoil that this monstrous blizzard had caused for us country folk. I informed her of our trek and she hastily told me that she just heard there's a state of emergency in the County and that I could get ticketed. I replied that there's free coffee in town, and that the small town police didn't really scare me! I also knew my workaholic husband was at work in town and he would happily bail me out, either of a drift that I was stuck in or of an impending ticket for putting me and my youngest daughter's life in danger. After a wonderful satisfying breakfast and my free cup of coffee, we decided to really do it up big and went to get manicures. Crazy I know! It really felt like a ghost town while driving around and not seeing much activity. Most places were closed, but wonderful Hahn welcomed us as his first, and likely only, customers for the day.

After all this excitement we headed for home where I spent the remainder of the day making baked chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, jello, salad, and fancy little desserts. The whole family +1 (for new blog followers, the +1 refers to the boyfriend of 4 years), came home for a wonderful evening of food, laughter, and fun! It just doesn't get much better than that! Alli was soon leaving for an extended period of time to work in Lima, Peru and our evening together was soothing to this Mother's soul.

As you can see, this Stormie, didn't really stop us in our tracks. Maybe my real problem, and for most of us over 40, we have a pretty clear memory of the Blizzard of '78. I'm pretty sure the younger set are tired of hearing "this is nothing! In 1978 blah blah blah ..." But I really do want to take a walk down memory lane. Join me if you wish!

The facts of my life during The Blizzard of 1978:

1. We had one small TV in the basement, ignored in a cabinet, with only 3 channels.

2. One telephone attached to the wall with a cord.

3. My two oldest siblings were married and didn't live at home, my two brothers just older than me were returning from a 3 week trip to Australia with my Dad. It was just me(a wonderful 13 year old), my Mom, and my little brother (all of 9), and ...

4. My best friend was spending the night, little did we know she would be spending the next 7 nights!

5. My Mom was (and still is) an amazing woman!

And then the blizzard hit ... hard! If you look at the photo that begins this post, you will see the snow blowing around in front of the barn. When the blizzard hit in 1978, we couldn't see the barn for 3 days because of the amount of snow and wind. Wikipedia gives the following data: snowfall in our area 38", 100 mph winds, and windchill temps of -60F. On the 4th day when the wind had finally died, us 3 younguns bundled up and ventured outside. There was a drift on the east side of the barn that ran the whole length of the barn and was as high as the bottom of the roof. Over the course of the next 3 days we dug tunnels through that drift like a bunch of ground hogs.

At some point during these 7 days my Dad and brothers landed in California and called home to announce their impending homecoming into Chicago. My Mother firmly informed him that even if he made it into Chicago by air, there would be NO WAY he would make it home from the big city. He was pretty sure that if he figured out a way to use highways to make it within 4 miles of our home (Hilltop Restaurant for you local folk) that someone could come on a snowmobile and pick them up. When my Mom told him he was crazy, he decided that she had likely lost her mind in the blizzard, which probably wasn't too far off given the circumstances of small kids and cabin fever. So he called my oldest brother to talk to someone that had sense (this is how I remember him repeating the story to others later) and guess what ... he heard the same thing from my brother. So my Dad was finally convinced to stay put in sunny California while the County worked to "dig out".

On day 7 we heard loud motors outside our windows! Peering out of our windows, we saw a huge payloader slowly working it's way down our road. He would scoop, dump beside the road, scoop, dump beside the road, the whole way. After the payloader had done his job in our stretch of the road, we stood out in the middle of the cleared path that was one vehicle wide. Looking up & down the path there were neighbors also standing in the middle of the road as far as we could see each way. Later in the day our neighbor boy arrived with his snowmobile to take my friend the 5 miles to her home. I don't remember specifics of my Dad and brothers finally making it home, but I do know they were in awe at all the snow, with my brothers wishing they would've been home to enjoy all the excitement.

I've got a t-shirt in the attic that says "I survived the Blizzard of '78". If you aren't going to go buy a shirt that says "I survived the Blizzard of 2011", then you haven't really lived through a true blizzard. Just sayin' ...