"The Great Blizzard"

I just remember this. Not in any great detail, and not in as much detail as I might think (I would have been nine, almost ten, when it hit).

I grew up in sort of a secondary "snowbelt" area. In Northeast Ohio, we didn't get the Dreaded Lake Effect as badly as Buffalo did, but we did get more snow than some other areas.

Mainly, I remember all the snow. There were times when I was a kid where there were drifts as tall as I was.

I also remember the power went out. (Schools, of course, were closed - though just a few years later we got a superintendent who didn't believe in closing for ANY reason, and there were an awful lot of cold/heavy snow/icy days when we had school - I think even once or twice they didn't run the buses, meaning parents were responsible for getting the kids to school).

We had a fireplace in those days (later on, we even got a fireplace insert, which would have been even more efficient). As I remember, we camped out in sleeping bags around the fireplace. We had a gas furnace and as I remember it had a pilot that stayed lit (it was a large, terrifying box in one corner of the basement), but of course with no power, the blower would not work to move warm air through the house.

We were able to cook; the stove was a gas stove with pilots that could be lit with a match. (A lot of the things that have been adapted in the name of "safety" make it harder to find workarounds - I don't think you could do that on a modern gas stove). As I remember, she made a batch of macaroni and cheese and took it across the street to the family that lived there - four kids, and she knew they had an electric stove, so they needed hot food.

I don't remember being scared, or feeling inconvenienced, or the "howl" that some described.

Here's The Akron Beacon-Journal's remembering of the storm (Back in the day, that was the paper we took: the daily Beacon-Journal, which was the nearest daily paper, and then also the weekly Hudson Hub.)

And more history: here's a radio account of the blizzard:



I guess my parents were pretty good at insulating my brother and me - as I said, I don't remember being scared or feeling in danger; in fact, for me, it seemed rather like "playing Little House on the Prairie." But people died and lots of buildings were damaged...I don't even remember hearing that.

My parents always planned ahead in winter, we had plenty of food and firewood on hand, so we came out of it fine.

Wow, and how different radio broadcasts used to sound! I'm getting old.

WJKW Channel 8: I don't know if I ever saw this broadcast (as I said, the power went out), but the names of the reporters trigger my memories. We watched this channel. I especially remember Dick Goddard and his "Wooly Bear Reporters."




It's just fascinating to me to see the 30-some year old reporting, and how different it was. I remember this style, I remember when things were done this way.