Jim Remembers the Blizzard of ’77
It’s cold, but I’m still glad to be here!
In the last week or so, we have experienced record setting cold weather in the mountains of Western North Carolina. With temps sinking below zero, Lake Fairfield is frozen solid. This wasn’t in the brochure when we moved down here almost 19 years ago from Buffalo, NY (the sunny Northeast)!
The cold snap reminded me of younger days and enduring the Blizzard of ’77. This was the storm that put Buffalo on the international map. We had a number of friends and family visiting during the storm and we lost power and heat for a period of time. We had a fireplace in our living room, so we hung plastic to wall off the living room from the rest of the house and stayed huddled by the fire. Candles were our light source and we had a good supply of firewood, so we weren’t too worried. Water and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches were our primary sustenance. We brought in all of our blankets and pillows and created a living room-cabin. The snow fell for 10 consecutive days and it got as low as 7 degrees below zero. The Blizzard occurred due to the 40 – 65 mile per hour winds that blew through during the periods of lake effect snow and created drifts of up to 30 feet! In order to get out of our house, we needed to climb out a high back window and slide down a snowdrift. We then came around to the front of the house and dug out the front door where the snow had drifted up over the roof. We checked with neighbors to make sure everybody was ok and we took our sleds and did periodic grocery runs for the neighborhood. We told a lot of stories, read a lot of books and played a lot of board games during that time. There was a good deal of family quality time and bonding. While it was a scary experience then, we look back on it now with fond memories.
I enjoy the mountains for the change of seasons, but I don’t miss the sustained cold of Buffalo winters. Someone once said that in Buffalo, summer falls on a Thursday. It’s not as bad as all that and is really quite beautiful in the summer months. I remain a diehard Bills and Sabres fan in spite of neither team ever winning a championship. With that being said, I feel blessed to live and work at Camp Merrie-Woode and wouldn’t trade it for the world. Here’s hoping for some warmer weather here on the shores of Lake Fairfield!
Stay warm and remember…the summer camp season is rapidly approaching!
Chug-A-Wump from a frozen Merrie-Woode,
Jim