The Blizzard of 1978

It was February 5, 1978, and it was just like any other winter in the Northeast, USA. However, was it?

The blizzard of 1978, began forming, on the night of February 5, 1978, which would produce heavy snow, and hurricane force winds. In areas like Delaware, the storm produced over 18 inches of snow, and substantial drifts, leading the state to declare a distaster. The storm essentially paralyzed transportation and economic activities across the region in the days that followed.

Delaware was completly unprepared for this storm. I lived through this storm, and the night before, all they were predicting was 1 to 2 inches of snow.

The next morning, I got up first, and noticed the brightness of the kitchen, but the lights were not on. I tried to look out the window to the back door, and my door was drifted shut. I also tried the front door, and it was drifted shut also. By then my ex- husband came out, and said, "I over slept, I will be late for work". I simply told him, "I wouldn't rush if I were you", and I pointed to the kitchen window. I will not say his response, because it included a profanity. I will say "Holy Crap", instead.

Fool Us Once -But Not Twice

So that began the ritual of Winters in Delaware. My current husband grew up in Texas, and he was in the military. He asked me, "Every time it snows, why do you want to run to the store, and fill the grocery cart up like you were starving"? He added, " why are all these people doing the same thing, and why are they taking all the milk and bread?" There is only a dusting forecasted.

So thus began the story of the Blizzard of nineteen seventy eight, and the ritual that followed.

The Ritual

The forecast of snow, brings everyone back to 1978. Either you lived through it, or your parents lived through it, or you have heard the stories, about it. It's like a Delaware tradition. It's like the story of Paul Revere, or Washington crossing the Delaware.

It was a terrible time, Thank God no one got sick, or hurt, because nothing at all moved for three days. We lived out in the country, right over the line in Maryland, in a little town called Marydel. Marydel consisted of a house made into a small, hole in the wall Post Office, and People's bank on the Delaware side, and a convenience store. That's it. However, the owner of that convenience store, shoveled his way to the store, and opened its doors, and sold what they had in that tiny convenience store. If you could get there, you could buy it. Of course you had to bring you own shovel with you to clear the pathway.

So the ritual was, buy everything in sight. "The Big Monster Storm", will be coming to get you, and yours, and you might never get out. In fact that is how people felt. Just fill your cart up with everything, that you can afford to buy, because that is what you have to live on, for however long it took to shovel your way out.

My current husband also asked, "What's with the run on hamburger, and canned tomatoes". I told him and don't forget the kidney beans, and then I explained to him, the Delaware legacy of chili, when it snowed.

Thankfully, I had hamburger in the freezer, and canned tomatoes and kidney beans and onions, in the house, in 1978, and I made a big, big, pot of chili.

To this day, I find younger people, also filling their cart full, and I asked them, "Why", passing them with my also full cart. They said, I went with my mother and father, and they always told me the story....- I finished their sentence.

"Of The Blizzard of 1978".