The Neighb News asked for stories of the Great Blizzard of 1978 to commemorate its 40th anniversary. We ran several last week.
Here is one straggler that came in too late for last week’s issue.
It’s just a bug, lift it up!
When Greater New Bedford experienced the Blizzard of 1978, I was in my eighth year as a teacher and coach at Fairhaven High School.
The storm was predicted by local weather forecasts but not to be of that magnitude.
We were at FHS when the storm began to hit, Superintendent Lynwood Harriman dismissed school. Faculty members were dismissed also.
I owned a 1964 VW bug [purchased it from Mel Entin the previous year.] If anyone my age remembers the VW bug, it was very light with the engine in the rear. It was not made for any extreme weather event like a blizzard.
On my way home, my car began to slide and I ended up in a snow bank. After several attempts of rocking the car back and forth by putting the car in reverse and then forward, the attempt failed. The wheels spun with no movement action.
I exited the car to the rear bumper and pulled the car back manually enough to break free. This was no feat of strength. As I said, the car was light weight.
I made it home. In reflection, a sigh of relief is warranted here.
School was called off for a week as the clean-up process was a mammoth effort. There were snow hills 10-15 feet high that front end loaders were used to clear. The melting process lasted until spring.
I was coaching Winter/Indoor track at the time. Training that required road work was suspended. We were very fortunate to have the indoor track above the “round” gym for training. It helped tremendously as other local schools were limited to “corridor running.”
At home, we lost power for several days. We were fortunate to have a wood stove.
I think anyone in the ball park of my age, will have memories of this historic weather event.
Steve Bender, FHS Class of 1966
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