- Coming of Age
- 26 JAN 78 The Great Lakes Blizzard
- Dynasties Are Hard To Come By
It was a lot of fucking snow.
A birthday spent under the threat of a blizzard? That’s the joy of living in Chicagoland.
But Not Our First Brush With Disaster
For the none of you keeping score at home my family had been through one war, one war scare and a hurricane.
Even at a young age, I knew we were prepared for a blizzard or at least I wasn’t afraid. Mom treated disasters as little vacations, making sure we could stay occupied- a busy mind doesn’t have time to be afraid.
A Late Birthday Present
The snow started coming down early evening of the 26th, we were fortunate to sleep through most of it without incident.
The Most Insanest Snow Evar
Did I mention the snow? Well over a foot of accumulation with 4-6 foot drifts. The picture below is from Indiana after the same storm. It’s representative.
When I first opened the front door I was confronted with a wall of snow towering over me- with two strategically-placed divots.
Mom came up behind us, saying that Dolly Parton had fallen into the snow bank and it almost made sense before she confessed to using the snow as a field-expedient wine chiller. Mom’s such a goofball 🙂
The aftermath of being buried in snow didn’t lodge strong memories. Knowing Illinois back then we probably missed no more that a day or two of school….not like today when kids get days off at the drop of a hat.