Remember the 17 Storm Winter?

Anybody remember the winter when we had 17 snow events?

 


Yes!! I think I was a class mom that year and by the 3rd or 4th snow day, I would have parents screaming at me when I made those 6 a.m. calls saying "no school today." You'd think I was the one deciding on snow days! That winter never seemed to end. angry 


Was that 1994 or 1995? I got four snow tires on my car that winter, and they helped a lot.


Was just thinking of then while readying supplies for this year...


Baby 2 was due mid-March. I remember staying indoors a lot and knitting an incredibly complicated sweater while watching every episode of Thomas (Ringo AND George) 600 times with Baby 1. 


cody said:
Yes!! I think I was a class mom that year and by the 3rd or 4th snow day, I would have parents screaming at me when I made those 6 a.m. calls saying "no school today." You'd think I was the one deciding on snow days! That winter never seemed to end. angry 

 Yes, I was a class mom as well. Parents would actually scream at me as I made the decisions. I told one mom who was especially rude, that if she continued with her rudeness, I would never call her again. 

I also offered to watch her child but she carried on even more. 


I was describing that winter to a friend just the other day.  It wasn't just the snow events. There were also multiple frozen rain and sleet that made it impossible to effectively clear sidewalks. Our car (RX7) frequently could not make it up the hill from the train station.  I walked home from the station many nights arriving covered in icy snow. 


Yes we were getting snow twice weekly. Then we had the big kaboom of 3 feet. Virtual shutdown for an entire week.


Yes we were getting snow twice weekly. Then we had the big kaboom of 3 feet. Virtual shutdown for an entire week.


I was living in Brooklyn and pregnant and dragging a heavy shopping cart over big mountains of snow.  


Oh, that winter. It was also the thaw/freeze cycle. I was in our first house (not Maplewood) which had a very steep circular driveway, and every nap time for my 18 month old, I went outside with the garden hoe and attempted to chip away at the 6 inches of frozen ice at the bottom of each side of the driveway, which we really could not get up. What a nightmare. Plus my in-laws from Michigan were supposed to leave on one of the days we got like 24 inches of snow. Needless to say, they stayed.....


On MLK day that year my daughter who was in second grade, broke her leg badly.  For the rest of that winter she had a cast up to her thigh.  At her elementary school you had to walk outside to get to the cafeteria and she just couldnt get there.  Every single day for 2 months, my daughter's incredible, even miraculous teacher, Heather Smith Wills, would have lunch with my daughter in the classroom, and invite two other second graders to join them.  It made my very shy self conscious daughter feel like a super star that year.   As long as I live I will be grateful to that incredible woman for her kindness and selflessness and for what she did for my daughter.    


Moved to Maplewood that year. Wife was pregnant. Commuting was a nightmare. Our little Ford Escort wouldn't move because of all the frozen slush underneath it!!


The winter of the 14 snow + 3 ice storms.  

We were in Bloomfield that winter.  For the 'big one' Tabby drove me to Newark air port late on Saturday afternoon, as I was headed to Italy on business.  On the way back it started to snow (which I watched in the air port).

By the time the snow stopped on Monday, there was a 7' drift against the front door, so she did not get out of the house till Tuesday or Wednesday (with not much more than Progresso soups in the house).  Meanwhile, I was enjoying some great food & wine in Tuscany (my Italian business host took me to some great little restaurants off the beaten path).  

When I got home the following weekend, my car was still buried under 3-4' of the white stuff.



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