[AT] more on the blizzard of 78

[Mike 1countryguy]

If some of u remember there was also very bad winter the year before (but the ground was completely frozen) so I could drive across a ditch with the twp grader and hit big drifts from the opposite side!  Not so in 78, the ditches were full of water and mud.
 
That morning the blizzard was being clocked at 80 mph in nw ohio and moving east.  At 8 am I was in a new IH scout with snow plow checking a twp rd for a trustee that had just had open heart.  I told him no way he should be out.  
 
I checked on a lady that had ms and the backhoe had cleared a path to her house about 8ft wide!  I know the width, cause was driving thru that opening and the wind hit.  I had to climb out a window to see why I was stuck and feel the plow.  Then had to use seat belt on those slippery seats to to keep from sliding clear across to the other door.  The wind stopped and i got toward home a few miles the the wind hit again.  The main storm was still to the west of ashland, ohio and hitting Mansfield full force.
 
I got home and my dad was loading big round bales of hay in dump truck to go six miles south.  The twp truck stopped and they backed it in the open faced machinery shed and put the chains on the tires.  The the twp truck and plow cut a path south with my father following in (almost new to us) 72 IH 1700 grain truck.
 
They got to the other farm and the twp truck went to the drivers home.  Ater the storm finally passed is where the story i shared before started.  An open station 4 wheel loader cut a path for me to plow open to even get to the twp truck about 5 miles from the grader.  When we started plowing, we worked together, but never worked in the dark.  That was to dangerous and the wind chill would freeze you quickly.  Metal was so cold that I never touched it with out gloves.
 
Oh, only communication was the cb radio (when we could get reception)
 
Fast forward to today.  I have two big generators available and a new farm shop.  I am smart enough now that I have huge pile of wood and coal for my outdoor furnace and will be spending any snow time in ahot water floor heated shop (inside).  Working on a never ending assortment of White and MM tractors.
 
> From: sewell at ohio.edu
> To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
> Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:41:46 -0500
> Subject: Re: [AT] Blizzard of '78
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com [at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Gene Dotson [gdotsly at watchtv.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 11:00 PM
> To: ATIS
> Subject: [AT] Blizzard of '78
> 
> Just wonder how many of you remember the Great Blizzard of "78 during
> this week in 1978? 40 inches of snow, 100 MPH winds and temperature of -17
> degrees. Wind chill was
> -80 degrees. Barometer reading of 28.28 in.
> 
> Yep, remember it well. I went to work that morning here in SE OH. Took over 3 hours for the 50 min. trip to Parkersburg, wva. Pulled a state trooper out of a snow drift in the middle of US route 50 east of Athens. He followed me to Coolville. Remember looking down the road at a valley that the fence posts got really short - almost disappered . I put it on the floor and broke thur - looked back and the trooper was on my bumper. (-; 7 of us made it to work that day out of close to 50. It was bad all that day. Boss told us ~ 2PM to go home and don't try to come back for a few days. This was with a 1977 F250 2WD limited slip rear axle. After it was over I replaced the plastic grill that the drifts broke and had to rebuild the L/S unit. But I was 22 so it was great fun. (-;
> I also remember dad talking about the blizzard of 1950. And of grandpa about going to the Fairfield County fair in the early 1930's. That fair is the last in Ohio, in October. He and the 'hired hand' left that warm morning in short shirt sleeves. Retured that night with snow on the ground. Never saw the ground again till April the next year!
> 
> -steve
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