The Blizzard of '78

I'm still rooting for a 3" snow down here in the Rocket City; Linda's Post from the snowy Hoosierland made me all homesick for just one good Indiana snow. And, she happened to mention the Blizzard of '78, so I dug out an album and found a couple of photos from that memorable event.


I was a freshman at the University of Evansville at the time, and I well remember the thunderstorm we had that turned into snow with thunder that eventually left about a foot of snow on Indiana's toe (More in the rest of the state...). At that time, Evansville didn't handle a bunch of snow much better than it would get handled here in North Alabama, and the town shut down for a week; we missed at least a couple of days of school. I was one of a bunch of folks from the IVCF group on campus who went out in front of Morton Hall (my dorm) and built a snow sculpture; it was supposed to mean 'One Way'. Wouldn't you know, sometime that night some joker tried to move the finger from the first to the second knuckle, which failed utterly and just left a fist on the lawn until it melted. But our intentions were good.

Of course, there's only a vague suggestion that the blurry shapes in this 31-year-old 110-instamatic photo are even actual humans, but I am the one in the second row on the left with the white hat.

The snow was still around when we went on spring break a couple of weeks later, and you can see that the fence between my folk's back yard and the pasture behind the house was totally overwhelmed.

Incidentally, not only did I photograph phenomenal snowfall on that 'spring break', I visited my BFF at Purdue (they were not on spring break) and she introduced me to a tall blond engineering student from Elkhart who later became my husband.

Altogether a pivotal event. ;)

I'd take a picture of the weather outside my house now, but it's really boring. Clear sunset and 42 degrees F....