The blizzard of 1978 hit Lansing 30 years ago this weekend. I can remember my parents telling me about this snowstorm, and now one of my old man’s stories has been immortalized in the LSJ. First, a little background on the blizzard:
It paralyzed mid-Michigan and most of the state.
Frothy white flakes, in pretty clumps, began falling late on Jan. 25, heaping up 18 inches of snow.
Then the wind had its way.
Blasts reaching up to 60 mph in some places scoured snow from fields and lawns and dumped it against doors, windows and cars, leaving drifts as high as houses in some places.
Schools, offices, GM and MSU all closed.
Some weddings and other big events were postponed.
Babies continued to be born, sometimes putting parents and paramedics in a pickle.
The Michigan National Guard was called out to help clear roads and to run rescue missions.
Here’s the part they quoted my dad about:
Party atmosphere
Scott Pohl of WKAR radio in East Lansing was an MSU student living in married housing at Spartan Village when the storm hit.
“A bunch of us spent the whole day digging out our parking lot,” he reported by e-mail. “At one point, a stranger rode up on a snowmobile …
“He asked if any of us needed anything. Being the typical college students we were, it didn’t take long to reach a consensus: beer!
“We took up a collection and handed the cash over to this stranger. He roared off on his snowmobile, perhaps never to return. But he did, bearing the beer we’d paid for.”
Oh, Scooter.
Hey, we’ve gotta start documenting memories of Michigan blizzards like this, because we probably won’t have them anymore in another 20 years.
happy birthday my cutie!
What won’t we have in another 20 years? Blizzards? Or memories?
They left out the part of the story where we only had one snow shovel per building issued by MSU…meaning three to dig out our entire parking lot. Mission number one: sneak around to other buildings and take their shovels (yes, we returned them, but not until after we were done).
I was referring to global warming, but at your age I suppose memories would apply too.
And to think I was inside all day thinking your Dad was hard at work with a shovel in his hand. Instead, I find out he had a beer in the other hand…
Believe me, a LOT of snow was shoveled before the beer arrived. We stuck it in a snowbank to keep it cold. Man, after all that work, it was GOOD.
Yea I remember that storm. The snow plow got stuck on our road so they only plowed to the last house on the road. Then when march arrived they took an endloader and opened the rest of the road. The snow drifts were taller than the school bus once we could drive the full length of the road.