10 years ago today

[desh]

The snow started late on the Saturday evening of the 6th, and din't stop until Monday morning, the 8th. It was illegal to drive for non-emergency purposes on any Philadelphia highways for at least all day Monday, and perhaps Tuesday as well. The final total at the Philly airport was 30.7 inches, a record for one storm.

Where I lived, up on a hill in the Philly suburbs, it might've been more. I couldn't tell, because of all the snow blowing around. I kept trying to measure with my yardstick, and I found that the snow was falling at over an inch per hour for awhile. When the snow plows finally came, they blocked the end of my driveway, such that the only way to get past (or at least the most fun way) was to backflop over the plowed hill and land on the two-foot-plus cushion on the driveway itself. They even had to fully plow in a connecting street in our development, because there wasn't anywhere else to put the snow, so for weeks afterwards we had to drive around the block an extra quarter-mile or so to get anywhere.

For days after, I played with my neighbors: 3 kids about my age, and an Alaskan Malamute. We made the dog pull Lauren around the neighborhood on a sled, and they both loved it. Once Lauren actually got stuck in a snow drift, and I had the dog take care of her while I went to get more help to pull her out. Sort of a reverse Lassie situation, I guess. I was having the time of my life.

And yet, my school opened that Thursday. Couldn't even get a full week off! (At least another storm came on Friday and closed everything down again.)

Comments

[janinedog]

I totally remember the blizzard of '96. I lived in Stormville, NY at the time...which is in the gray area of that map. However, that town was at a higher elevation than everything around it, so we always got more snow than everyone around us. If I remember correctly, we did get the whole week off from school. I do remember we couldn't even open the doors of the house for a day or two. It was awesome.