January 6, 2007

Still no snow! Are we going to be hit with the big snow , like '67? Oh my!!!!! Here are pictures to show what it looked like. I remember almost being stuck at SCHOOL! The horror!!!!! I remember calling my mom at work and warning her about the snow. She laughed and said "don't worry, she's taking the regular bus home." (See the bus in the picture?) Well she ended up walking home down Stoney Island Ave. with a bunch of other ladies from Sears. It took her an hour and a half. (Normally a 10 minute bus ride.) My dad did not fare as well. He drove trucks for Empire Moving and Storage and was in charge of the garage (locking up at night). He stayed on the job because he knew one of the other drivers was coming in with a truck. He didn't want the other guy to be stuck and not get the rig inside. My dad ended up sleeping in the garage for 3 days! The other driver got stranded somewhere in the city - no cell phones, remember! After day three dawned my dad decided to get home one way or another, he started out by train, got as far as 71st and Stoney and walked the rest of the way (destination 85th and Stoney). Leave it to my dad - he stopped for Chinese food along the way because he didn't know how the food situation would be when he got home. Turns out my mom and I had walked down the middle of Stoney Island Avenue with a shopping cart and did a little shopping at the local grocery store. Our area was lucky because our stores still had food. Some stores in the far southern suburbs had to have the food brought in by helicopters! I didn't even remember that the snow had started in the morning until I read the historical accounts that went with these pictures. On a sad note one of our neighbors suffered a major heart attack from shoveling. Although he recovered his health was never the same.

I also remember the snow of 79! But I couldn't find any pictures, isn't that odd? I think it is because that was the "winter to beat all winters". We had so much snow we had to shovel the roof! Garage roofs were collapsing all over! People couldn't park their cars in front of the house because the snow took up all the room. We would park in school parking lots and then the police would call at 4AM to remind us to move the cars so they could plow the school. We'd drive the cars around until the lot was clear and then everyone would head back when the plows were done. Schools were closed for a week!- due to the fear of collapsing buildings and they were SERIOUS 'cause it happened. For this snow I lived in the far south suburbs and they did better in this storm than the '67 disaster. The city was a MESS! They couldn't even get to the side streets much less major streets.


good read: A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas