[Speaker 0] In a world created by Mike Dell, I [Speaker 0] guess you would call it Mike Dell's world.

[Speaker 1] Yep.

And that's what I call it.

Mike [Speaker 1] Dell's world for November twenty fifth twenty twenty [Speaker 1] five.

This is episode four thirty one for [Speaker 1] those of you keeping score.

And it's, of [Speaker 1] course, the twenty fifth day of Nippon Pomo.

[Speaker 1] After this, I only got, four more to [Speaker 1] go or five more to go.

Whatever.

I'm [Speaker 1] terrible at math, at least today.

Anyway, I [Speaker 1] wanna talk about something that in two months [Speaker 1] will be forty eight years ago.

That's, actually [Speaker 1] sort of amazing to me because I can't [Speaker 1] I can't believe that I can remember something [Speaker 1] that happened forty eight years ago, but it's [Speaker 1] true.

I was twelve years old.

Right?

Just [Speaker 1] turning twelve when, this event started.

In fact, [Speaker 1] it was the day after my birthday that [Speaker 1] it really happened, but, hey.

No, no big [Speaker 1] deal.

So let me set the scene.

I'm [Speaker 1] twelve years old.

Just had a birthday party [Speaker 1] at my house, for my twelfth birthday, and [Speaker 1] dad went to Little Richard's Pizza.

And if [Speaker 1] those of you that are local here in [Speaker 1] Traverse City, Little Richard's was on Union Street [Speaker 1] just down from or, yeah, just south of [Speaker 1] the city bike shop, in the, in that [Speaker 1] I mean, a storefront there, and, they did [Speaker 1] Sicilian square pizza, and it was, you know, [Speaker 1] fairly famous pizza place around here back in [Speaker 1] nineteen seventy eight.

And, of course, before and [Speaker 1] somewhat afterwards, I don't know when they closed, [Speaker 1] but little Richard's, I remember I requested that [Speaker 1] because that was my favorite pizza place.

So [Speaker 1] dad comes home, and he, at the time, [Speaker 1] was driving a, nineteen seventy VW bus.

And [Speaker 1] we used to keep the back driveway plowed [Speaker 1] because we had a pole barn, way on [Speaker 1] the back of the property, and he kept [Speaker 1] that plowed.

And then he plowed a trail [Speaker 1] down to the house alongside the deck in [Speaker 1] the back of the house.

That was a [Speaker 1] really long driveway.

It was probably a hundred [Speaker 1] yards long, and then he would plow back [Speaker 1] to, to the house, which was probably another [Speaker 1] fifty yards.

So, you know, it was a [Speaker 1] lot of plowing to get there, but, you [Speaker 1] know, we hadn't had a lot of snow [Speaker 1] that year.

Wasn't, too bad.

And he, you [Speaker 1] know, went to Little Richard's, got pizzas, and [Speaker 1] decided he would park his VW bus there, [Speaker 1] along the back deck.

And, anyway, the so [Speaker 1] he was way, you know, back down a [Speaker 1] couple of plowed driveways and parked, and we [Speaker 1] had the pizza party.

And, of course, the, [Speaker 1] TV news was talking about a possible blizzard.

[Speaker 1] Now this is where my memory got fuzzy.

[Speaker 1] Nine and ten was the TV station, still [Speaker 1] is.

CBS affiliate in Cadillac, Michigan now moved [Speaker 1] to Traverse City, but, they were originally in [Speaker 1] Cadillac, Michigan.

In fact, their transmitter's still down [Speaker 1] there or one of the transmitters.

And there [Speaker 1] was a guy on there, and it wasn't [Speaker 1] who I think is.

I've done a little [Speaker 1] research before, starting this episode.

I always thought [Speaker 1] it was Bill Spencer that was the weatherman [Speaker 1] there, but he was not.

He came on, [Speaker 1] somewhere in the early eighties and also got [Speaker 1] the nickname Blizzard Bill.

The guy that was [Speaker 1] there, I don't remember what his name was, [Speaker 1] but, you know, he had predicted as a [Speaker 1] possibility of some lake effect snow, blah blah [Speaker 1] blah blah blah.

But on channel thirteen, w [Speaker 1] z z m out of Grand Rapids.

I [Speaker 1] think it was channel thirteen, or was it [Speaker 1] channel eight?

I forget.

One of the two [Speaker 1] stations, but we used to get channel thirteen [Speaker 1] up here because that was before we had [Speaker 1] an ABC affiliate.

So on our cable system [Speaker 1] and, yes, we had cable.

I think we [Speaker 1] had eight channels, something like that.

WZZM was [Speaker 1] our ABC affiliate, I I believe.

Like I [Speaker 1] said, this is all fuzzy math because I [Speaker 1] was twelve years old, and a lot of [Speaker 1] that stuff from forty eight years ago is [Speaker 1] a little fuzzy in the Internet's memory as [Speaker 1] well because the Internet didn't exist then.

But, [Speaker 1] anyway, I always thought it was Bill Spencer, [Speaker 1] but it wasn't.

It was, what was his [Speaker 1] name?

Jeez.

And I get his email all [Speaker 1] the time because he's still at it.

Anyway, [Speaker 1] Bill Stefan.

There we go.

Bill Stefan was [Speaker 1] was Blizzard Bill as well.

And, of course, [Speaker 1] Bill Spencer also got, the the nickname Blizzard [Speaker 1] Bill, when he worked in Cleveland.

He retired [Speaker 1] in twenty seventeen.

That's what I found out [Speaker 1] about him.

But, anyway, back to the story.

[Speaker 1] So we had the, you know, VW bus [Speaker 1] there.

I had a pizza party, all that.

[Speaker 1] And, of course, us kids used to whenever [Speaker 1] we'd have snow, we would sit downstairs.

We [Speaker 1] had a stereo, and I I don't remember [Speaker 1] what kind of stereo it was, but, you [Speaker 1] know, the old stereo receivers, you know, big [Speaker 1] warm tones and whatever.

And it had a [Speaker 1] blue dial on it, and we would always [Speaker 1] tune in to one of the local radio [Speaker 1] stations and wait for the school closing list.

[Speaker 1] Well, we got up that morning on the [Speaker 1] twenty sixth, and there was no doubt that, [Speaker 1] schools were gonna be closed.

In fact, the [Speaker 1] road was closed out in front of the [Speaker 1] house.

And, I mean, it was closed closed.

[Speaker 1] I mean, there was, you know, three foot, [Speaker 1] four foot drifts.

My mom had a nineteen [Speaker 1] seventy three.

I had to think about that [Speaker 1] for a second.

VW Beetle.

And back then, [Speaker 1] the CB craze was kinda big, so she [Speaker 1] had an eight foot whip antenna on the [Speaker 1] back bumper of her seventy three Beetle.

And, [Speaker 1] of course, she parked it in the front [Speaker 1] driveway.

And all we could see of that [Speaker 1] eight foot whip was about three and a [Speaker 1] half feet of the whip antenna sticking out [Speaker 1] of the snow, and, otherwise, the car was [Speaker 1] completely buried flat.

I mean, you wouldn't even [Speaker 1] know there was a car there.

That that's [Speaker 1] how much snow got dumped.

Now the the [Speaker 1] total of the snow really wasn't that much.

[Speaker 1] I mean, it was a lot, but, it [Speaker 1] wasn't, you know, four feet.

But with the [Speaker 1] wind, it was.

They had winds, in the [Speaker 1] hundred and ten knot range, and that's, you [Speaker 1] know, about a hundred and, yeah, hundred and [Speaker 1] twenty six, hundred twenty seven miles an hour.

[Speaker 1] And that causes great drifting.

And, of course, [Speaker 1] back then, we didn't have that many trees [Speaker 1] around, where my folks lived or where I [Speaker 1] lived at the time too, and that's still [Speaker 1] where mom lives now.

But, drifting was kind [Speaker 1] of a big deal, especially, you know, when [Speaker 1] the lake effect was kicking up, plus the [Speaker 1] system snow, plus the wind.

You know, it [Speaker 1] was all, you know, kind of the perfect [Speaker 1] storm.

But, man, I'll tell you, that was [Speaker 1] a lot of snow.

And, of course, we [Speaker 1] had horses, which we we were, gonna build [Speaker 1] a barn.

I think we built the barn [Speaker 1] in seventy nine.

But in seventy eight, we, [Speaker 1] used a barn two houses down from us.

[Speaker 1] Neighbors let us use their barn and pasture [Speaker 1] and everything for the horses.

So that was [Speaker 1] a whole another thing.

I had to snowshoe [Speaker 1] over there to, feed the horses and, had [Speaker 1] to it it would bring buckets of water [Speaker 1] out to them.

And, yeah, that was that [Speaker 1] was a whole another ball of worms.

But, [Speaker 1] yeah, it was just incredible.

Like, all the [Speaker 1] roads outside of town were closed.

Even in [Speaker 1] town, they had a lot of trouble.

It [Speaker 1] was, you know, the most amount of drifting [Speaker 1] and snow I'd ever seen in my life.

[Speaker 1] It was just amazing amount of snow.

Of [Speaker 1] course, you know, ice cross country skied.

You [Speaker 1] know, we had snowmobiles.

In fact, the snowmobile, [Speaker 1] we parked up on the barn roof, as [Speaker 1] I remember it now.

Like I said, fuzzy [Speaker 1] from being a twelve year old, but, maybe [Speaker 1] we parked the snowmobile up there after this [Speaker 1] storm because of the snow piles.

I don't [Speaker 1] remember.

But, anyway, we found the snowmobile, and [Speaker 1] it was kinda pointless in the powder, so [Speaker 1] we didn't use that.

So we, you know, [Speaker 1] snowshoed.

Yeah.

It snowshoed over to the horses [Speaker 1] that, you know, twice a day with food.

[Speaker 1] Well, if they had the food over there, [Speaker 1] but I'd have to bring water to them.

[Speaker 1] And but, I mean, it was it was [Speaker 1] closed closed.

The the roads, the schools, the [Speaker 1] schools were closed for an entire week, because [Speaker 1] of this, and it took probably four days [Speaker 1] before the road was open.

And one of [Speaker 1] the interesting stories about the road getting open [Speaker 1] is there was a a lady that lived [Speaker 1] a little further down the road and down [Speaker 1] another road about two miles off of our [Speaker 1] road, which was not really a main road, [Speaker 1] but, she she was kinda way back there.

[Speaker 1] And her husband owned a heavy equipment company.

[Speaker 1] And then we had an excavating company, nearby, [Speaker 1] Brayton's.

They're still around, I think.

But, Brayton's [Speaker 1] wanted to buy a new front end loader [Speaker 1] from this, I think it was called Northern [Speaker 1] Equipment at the time.

And so they you [Speaker 1] know, about three days into the storm or [Speaker 1] into the cleanup, he said, well, if you [Speaker 1] can get over to the lot there, you [Speaker 1] know, go ahead and grab one of the [Speaker 1] front end loaders and then bring it by [Speaker 1] and bring my wife a carton of cigarettes.

[Speaker 1] And that's, you know, the lady that lived [Speaker 1] down the road there, you know, ran out [Speaker 1] of cigarettes.

So that, front end loader came [Speaker 1] down our road, opened up our road, not, [Speaker 1] you know, one lane, not, you know, not [Speaker 1] wide like the county road plows would do, [Speaker 1] but, opened up a a trail and got [Speaker 1] all the way down to her house and [Speaker 1] gave her carton of cigarettes.

And on the [Speaker 1] way back, he made lots of money plowing [Speaker 1] out people's driveways, and we had him plow [Speaker 1] ours.

Not not ours, our main driveway, but [Speaker 1] the the driveway up to the horses.

And [Speaker 1] and then, plus, he had the road, so [Speaker 1] we got a lot easier.

You know, didn't [Speaker 1] have to use snowshoes to get up to [Speaker 1] the barn, but we didn't have the money [Speaker 1] or the inclination to have him plow our [Speaker 1] driveway out, which would have been a lot [Speaker 1] easier than what we did end up doing.

[Speaker 1] But, yeah, with my cousin and I, we're [Speaker 1] roughly the same age, and we lived about [Speaker 1] a mile apart.

And we would cross country [Speaker 1] ski, and, you know, it was it was [Speaker 1] a grand old time.

But when it came [Speaker 1] came time to clear out the driveways, for [Speaker 1] stars, my dad had a, a nineteen seventy [Speaker 1] John Deere one ten lawn tractor with the, [Speaker 1] and I only know this because I just [Speaker 1] got rid of the tractor, gave it to [Speaker 1] the neighbor behind where dad lived.

But, nineteen [Speaker 1] seventy John Deere one ten with a snowblower [Speaker 1] attachment on it.

It was a single stage [Speaker 1] snow thrower, thirty seven inches wide.

And we [Speaker 1] started up at the pole barn and started [Speaker 1] plowing towards the road.

And my cousin and [Speaker 1] I would, knock the snowbank down, and then [Speaker 1] dad would blow it out.

And then we [Speaker 1] would knock it down, and he'd blow it [Speaker 1] out.

And we did that for two straight [Speaker 1] days before we got to the road, and [Speaker 1] then we went back and, did the the [Speaker 1] trail over to my dad's VW bus that [Speaker 1] had been snow locked in the backyard.

Anyway, [Speaker 1] about four days after, after the the storm, [Speaker 1] the roads, you know, the county plows came [Speaker 1] through wide out the roads, and it wasn't [Speaker 1] too terrible.

But, you know, it took us [Speaker 1] three or four days with that little John [Speaker 1] Deere lawn tractor.

And, of course, you know, [Speaker 1] at that time, we got the snowmobile out, [Speaker 1] so we'd snowmobile up, get gas for it, [Speaker 1] up to a little store a couple miles [Speaker 1] away.

And, my uncle who lived over on [Speaker 1] Long Lake, in the south end of Long [Speaker 1] Lake at the time, he snowshoed over just [Speaker 1] because he was bored.

And, yeah, it was [Speaker 1] it was quite the time.

You know, we [Speaker 1] heated with wood at the time as we [Speaker 1] discussed in a previous episode.

All the wood [Speaker 1] was in the house, so that was easy.

[Speaker 1] And I just remember, dad would have a [Speaker 1] pot of bean soup or a pot of [Speaker 1] chili or, you know, some sort of soup [Speaker 1] on the, wood stove all the time, you [Speaker 1] know, sitting up on top of the wood [Speaker 1] stove, and he'd come in after two or [Speaker 1] three hours of moving snow.

And I tell [Speaker 1] you what, there was nothing better than a [Speaker 1] big old hot steaming bowl of chili or [Speaker 1] or bean soup or whatever it was.

I [Speaker 1] don't specifically remember, but he'd always had something [Speaker 1] going on there.

And he always had a [Speaker 1] pot of, water on there.

It wasn't boiling [Speaker 1] or anything, but you could, you know, do [Speaker 1] coffee or or whatever.

And we never really [Speaker 1] lost power.

I think maybe we lost power [Speaker 1] the first night, when the winds were kicked [Speaker 1] up, but the power came back fairly quick.

[Speaker 1] I don't really remember the power outage that [Speaker 1] much, but I do remember, you know, just [Speaker 1] navigating the snow.

You know, we had a [Speaker 1] deck that went, you know, pretty much all [Speaker 1] the way around the house or at least [Speaker 1] around half of it, one side and in [Speaker 1] the front and the back.

And, you know, [Speaker 1] I had to move the snow off of [Speaker 1] the deck, and then, you know, you push [Speaker 1] some snow off the deck and then get [Speaker 1] the snowblower out to blow it out of [Speaker 1] where it landed.

You know, we even shoveled [Speaker 1] the roof, which almost never had to do [Speaker 1] there because of the wind.

But, again, it, [Speaker 1] you know, it it drifted up.

It was [Speaker 1] it's incredible.

I mean, just absolutely nuts.

You [Speaker 1] know, I've never seen snow like that since.

[Speaker 1] You know, now we've had a fair amount [Speaker 1] of snow, but never all at once like [Speaker 1] that and never totally paralyzing the roads and [Speaker 1] all that.

That was just beyond normal.

And [Speaker 1] and this this blizzard really, you know, it [Speaker 1] covered, you know, many states and and, you [Speaker 1] know, there's lots of, stories out there.

But, [Speaker 1] yeah, I'm telling my story from when I [Speaker 1] was twelve.

Let's see.

I did write down [Speaker 1] a couple of things just so I wouldn't [Speaker 1] forget.

But, no, I got it all.

Or [Speaker 1] at least I got all that part of [Speaker 1] it.

But, that year was incredible.

After that, [Speaker 1] it was like every Sunday we or every [Speaker 1] Monday.

No.

What was it?

No.

Thursday or [Speaker 1] Friday, we would get a blizzard.

And, generally, [Speaker 1] we didn't go to school on Friday or [Speaker 1] Monday for the rest of that snow season, [Speaker 1] you know, until at least until February.

And, [Speaker 1] I mean, the snow banks were you know, [Speaker 1] by the end of the season, you know, [Speaker 1] along the roads, the snow banks were probably [Speaker 1] eight foot tall.

You know, and that's no [Speaker 1] exaggeration.

That was a ton of snow, and [Speaker 1] it just lasted and lasted and lasted and [Speaker 1] lasted.

I do remember, you know, before the [Speaker 1] road was completely clear, another uncle of mine [Speaker 1] where my cousin lived and, you know, when [Speaker 1] it skied over and helped me plow snow.

[Speaker 1] Of course, we plowed him out, and he [Speaker 1] had a Jeep, c j seven.

I think [Speaker 1] it was brand new at the time too, [Speaker 1] or it was pretty close.

Maybe it was [Speaker 1] a seventy six, but it was pretty new.

[Speaker 1] Had a plow on the front of it.

[Speaker 1] And, but this was too much snow for [Speaker 1] for that vehicle and the plow, at least [Speaker 1] until, you know, we got at least broke [Speaker 1] up.

But, anyway, we we made the the [Speaker 1] first trip into town to, get groceries and [Speaker 1] beer and cigarettes and whatever the hell else [Speaker 1] back then everybody smoked.

Come on.

I didn't, [Speaker 1] but, you know, that was kind of the [Speaker 1] thing.

And, I remember riding into town in [Speaker 1] that jeep, you know, just looking at all [Speaker 1] the snow.

I mean, it was pretty, but [Speaker 1] man, oh, man, it was a ton.

And, [Speaker 1] went down to Meijer Thrifty Acres.

It's now [Speaker 1] called Meijer, but it's a big grocery everything [Speaker 1] store kind of.

Think of Walmart, but, not [Speaker 1] quite.

But, went down there and just, you [Speaker 1] know, filled the back of that Jeep up.

[Speaker 1] Me and him, you know, went down there.

[Speaker 1] We're in four wheel drive the whole time.

[Speaker 1] And as I said in my winter driving [Speaker 1] thing, I recommend four wheel drive if you [Speaker 1] have it.

But, yeah, I remember that trip [Speaker 1] into town and, you know, of course, it [Speaker 1] was still blowing and drifting a bit.

So, [Speaker 1] you know, you'd go into little blast of [Speaker 1] whiteout and, of course, the Jeep isn't really [Speaker 1] the warmest thing in the world, and, the [Speaker 1] defrosters didn't work very well neither did they [Speaker 1] on VWs that we had.

But, anyway, that, [Speaker 1] that storm was, you know, one for the [Speaker 1] history books, and I just can't believe it [Speaker 1] was that long ago.

Something interesting, there's a [Speaker 1] famous picture that was there's a couple famous [Speaker 1] pictures that were in the Record Eagle, our [Speaker 1] local newspaper, and I'm having trouble tracking them [Speaker 1] down.

But I I do have one in [Speaker 1] front of me, which I will, put in [Speaker 1] the show notes over at mike dell dot [Speaker 1] com.

But, and I don't I can't tell [Speaker 1] which theater this is.

It was either the [Speaker 1] Michigan theater or the state theater on Front [Speaker 1] Street, and you could see the big drift [Speaker 1] on the sidewalk under the marquee.

And, playing [Speaker 1] in the theater, first run was, oh god [Speaker 1] with George Burns and, John Denver.

So that [Speaker 1] was a picture of that marquee and, all [Speaker 1] the snow on Front Street.

And, you know, [Speaker 1] what was on Front Street was far less [Speaker 1] than what we got to out out of [Speaker 1] town over by Long Lake.

So and then [Speaker 1] there was another, thing that happened.

I think [Speaker 1] it was around the same time, but maybe [Speaker 1] not exactly.

There was a, school ship out [Speaker 1] in the bay, in West Bay, and it [Speaker 1] wasn't the current one.

They're right there's a [Speaker 1] current school ship there at the NMC's Maritime [Speaker 1] Academy called the the state of Michigan.

But [Speaker 1] this was a different boat, and it was [Speaker 1] their school ship.

And it capsized in the [Speaker 1] bay and the ice, and it was laying [Speaker 1] on its side in the shallow water on [Speaker 1] West Bay and, on the front page of [Speaker 1] the newspaper.

And, yes, newspapers were a thing [Speaker 1] back then.

I guess they still are sorta [Speaker 1] kinda, but, record eagles around anyway.

But, it's [Speaker 1] a picture of that boat laying on its [Speaker 1] side, and somebody'd spray painted on the bottom [Speaker 1] or painted on the bottom this side down.

[Speaker 1] But, they were able to flip it back [Speaker 1] up after after not too much and didn't [Speaker 1] really hurt the ship too much, I don't [Speaker 1] think.

But, again, I'd fuzzy twelve year old [Speaker 1] memory from forty eight years ago, but I [Speaker 1] do remember seeing that ship out there as [Speaker 1] well.

You know, we finally got back to, [Speaker 1] you know, normal life and, you know, go [Speaker 1] by there periodically.

But, yeah, that was, that [Speaker 1] was quite the storm.

And, yes, I am [Speaker 1] old enough to know and remember the blizzard [Speaker 1] of seventy eight.

And somebody so, you know, [Speaker 1] Wikipedia has an article about it, and they [Speaker 1] the title of the article is the great [Speaker 1] blizzard of seventy eight.

We just caught the [Speaker 1] blizzard of nineteen seventy eight or blizzard of [Speaker 1] seventy eight.

Other names for it were the [Speaker 1] Cleveland Superbomb.

That was crazy.

But, yeah, it [Speaker 1] was, you know, it was it was the [Speaker 1] perfect blizzard.

You know?

And, again, you know, [Speaker 1] I don't know if nowadays it would be [Speaker 1] as big a deal.

I know Buffalo, New [Speaker 1] York gets an amazing amount of snow.

That [Speaker 1] doesn't sound like, it it was impact as [Speaker 1] impactful as the storm was at least around [Speaker 1] here.

And I know, Indiana and Ohio and [Speaker 1] and, you know, some of the other surrounding [Speaker 1] areas got it pretty good too.

And, you [Speaker 1] know, I think even the East Coast got [Speaker 1] some of it.

I I I wonder if [Speaker 1] it was one of those nor'easters that, stayed [Speaker 1] strong and just kept going.

But, anyway, that's [Speaker 1] my, remembrances of the blizzard of seventy eight.

[Speaker 1] And, you know, that winter was great because, [Speaker 1] we didn't go to school all that much.

[Speaker 1] We had lots of snow days.

And snow [Speaker 1] days are a whole another thing, you know, [Speaker 1] up here.

Now nowadays, you know, if if [Speaker 1] I look out my window and they see [Speaker 1] four inches of snow on the hood of [Speaker 1] my truck, chances are they're gonna call a [Speaker 1] snow day or at least a delay.

They, [Speaker 1] their wusses compared to what we were.

We [Speaker 1] went to school in some some crazy weather.

[Speaker 1] But, hey.

That's okay.

Not yeah.

Hey.

If [Speaker 1] it, if it works for them, it works [Speaker 1] for them.

That's fine.

So, hey.

You know, [Speaker 1] if anybody that's old enough and was around [Speaker 1] here at the time, let me know, what [Speaker 1] your experience was with the blizzard of seventy