Wednesday, February 6, 2008

More Blizzard of '78 pics...

I grew up in a suburb of Boston - pretty close to 128 - like maybe a 5 minute walk away. During the Blizzard people had to abandon their cars. The National Guard came and picked them up and brought them to a local church where they stayed for about a week. Can you imagine what a nightmare that must have been?

Here's some pics of the highway. It's funny the exit numbers were different back then.







Look at all these people on the bridge staring at the cars. We had nothing else to do...



Here's the center of town - everyone had to walk to get their food and whatever else they needed.





My mom later told me there were still snowbanks melting in August of that year in parking lots like one at Babson college. Not sure if it's an exaggeration but from this wikipedia entry it sounds plausible.

30 years ago tonight...

4 comments:

Fornya said...

Those pics are awesome. Yikes. Though I sat on Memorial Drive in Cambridge for about 4 hours during the "blizzard" (note the lower-case b) of 2007, I couldn't imagine having to deal with the snow in those photos. Having to abandon my car on 128? Sheesh.

And the National Guard… what if we needed them these days? Would we have to recall them from Iraq?

DJDiva said...

Thanks!

I can relate: I sat in 3.5 hours of traffic during the "blizzard" of '07 - and it wasn't a pretty site. I would have been so upset to have to abandon my car and be forced to sleep wherever the National Guard put me for a week.

William Rose said...

Cool photos! I lived in Needham for several years, too (1967-1972), then Wellesley, which was where we lived at the time of the big blizzard. I was driving cab for Wellesley Community taxi at the time. Those baby blue Checkers could get through almost anything, but I believe that one shut us down.

Anonymous said...

Is that "Great Plain Ave/W. Roxbury" sign the same one that is there today? It can't be, but it looks exactly the same!