In '78 my office was in downtown Cleveland and I lived in the eastern burbs. We closed up at 3 pm that day. It took me 8 hours to drive - or should I say inch - home. On the way, at University Circle, I picked up another commuter who lived in the eastern burbs. I warned him that I was driving without heat or headlights. He said he wished that he'd done likewise. His car was one of hundreds - thousands? - that died as overworked batteries pooped out.

My neighbor across the street also worked downtown. Remarkably we arrived home within minutes of each other. There was a difference, though; at one point he got out of his car, walked into a restaurant, had a bite to eat, and then resumed inching his way home.

The winds coming off Lake Erie were blowing fish onto the Shoreway.

As you might imagine, driving snow and icy winds were having their predictable effect on bladders. Lots of pissing in the streets.

Two days later when we reopened our office and were swapping experiences, a secretary who took a bus home to the southern burbs related that she held out pissing so long that when she got home she couldn't piss right away. Her muscles had contracted.

I was living in the "apartments" above the plasma place close to the A&P.

That was one strange winter (without going into too many details). It started with John and Jeff, the "townies" who lived above Swanky's hosting a New Year's Eve party with a massive amount of "hairy buffalo" aka "grog." Some local biker girl got so drunk from it, she was stumbling around and asking people "who put acid in the grog?" She was so drunk, she actually thought she was tripping on acid. Things stayed strange all winter to say the least.

Changed Meteorology forever in the Midwest. Folksy TV weathermen like Jerry Rasor (channel 4 in Columbus who was made more famous by 1960s his Dance Party show) were replaced with real meteorologists who often used private meteorological services and the latest data. We now use terms like computer models (GFS--North American or the other Euro model, among others. The 1978 Blizzard also changed athletics. Schools now coordinate with other schools when bad weather approaches. You don't see football games with lightning in the area either. It didn't use to be that way.

Yep. DJ, Bos Johnson, Bob Brunner and Bob Bowen. All part of the WSAZ super team. At least I thought so. They were about all we could get even though our family was kind of special in that we had one of those "modern day" rotary antennas. ;) Oh yeah, and don't forget Jule Huffman.

We had a couple of steps going leading up to our porch and I remember walking straight off the porch and couldn't find the steps. Our house was on a very busy thorofare. But for at last a week afterwards, we could play football right in the middle of the street. RTA stopped running. I used to deliver the Dayton Daily News and they stopped printing I think for the first time ever. Eventually, they started printing every other day.

According to this, the Miami basketball team was stranded and had to be housed in the Vandalia jail:  https://www.libraries.wright.edu/community/outofthebox/2011/03/03/the-blizzard-of-1978/

It is really amazing how lucky we have been the last few years regarding winter weather conditions.

I hope the youth have blankets, some water, snacks stashed in the car because you just have to be prepared. Not for some, I am dreaming of a white Christmas with a Curier and Ives landscape but rather one where the snow is horizontal except you cannot even see what is up and what is down and the cold immediately penetrates every opening and the wind quickly piles up the white stuff. Where cars won't start and if they did they can only keep you warm until the 1/8 tank you were driving peters out.

Safe travels to the MAC athletes and fans this winter.

I bet all you who are telling these memories of '78 are prepared.