So here it is, just as I remember it.
A Blizzard Named Larry
FEBRUARY 6-7, 1978
We knew a snowstorm was coming, but no one knew just how
intense it would be.
It was Monday and I had gone to Geissler’s for groceries to
see us through the storm. As I put
the car into my section of the garage, Thelma was standing there looking
strange. When I got out of my car she said to me, “I’m going to commit
suicide.” At first I didn’t believe her then I looked at her again. “Well, if
you do, please do it on your own side of the wall. I don’t want your mess on my
side.” I was all heart as you can see.
I brought the groceries into the house and told the kids
what had just happened. I recognized what she had just done was a cry for help;
what made me mad was the fact she had involved me and I felt responsible for her. Her! Of all people! Thelma and I had
an ugly history, but that’s another story.
I called the visiting nurse in town, who I knew to be a
friend of Thelma’s, and told her what had happened. In the meantime, the snow
had begun falling and was accumulating fast. The visiting nurse arrived
accompanied by the local police. After an hour or so, an ambulance came and
took Thelma away through the rapidly deepening snow.
For the remainder of the storm we listened to the radio for
information on the outside world. We also watch cars being abandoned right and
left on Route 5. At one point a VW Bug (the original model) was stopped at the
light at Route 5 and Trombley Rd. Along came an ambulance (with a patient
inside we later learned) and we watched it run right up and over the VW. That
brought police and two more ambulances—one a replacement of the first and the
other for the driver of the car.
The storm lasted two days. At the end of that time, Governor
Ella T. Grasso, closed everything in the state for 3 days so clean-up could be
done.
The day after it stopped snowing, we had about 3 feet of
snow in the driveway, along came an ambulance. Thelma is dropped off at the
edge of the road and made to wade through the snow to her house. Thelma seems
to have an ugly history with many people.
The ambulance attendants were pretty angry. They had trudged
through all that snow to get her to the hospital and they were not going to do
it again. Thelma decided she didn’t want to stay. The ambulance crew told us
she was nuttier than a fruitcake! We knew that.
Eventually a truck showed up to plow the driveway— it
was the landlord’s son. He hooked the plow onto the dumpster to move it out of the
way, and tipped it forward, dumping garbage bags everywhere. It took over an
hour for the plow to get it set upright. We watched from the window in Anne’s
room and laughed hysterically!
On Cape Cod: This was the storm that took out Coast Guard
Beach, the parking lot and bath houses, and most of the dunes south toward
Nauset inlet. The Outermost House was thrown way back into Nauset Marsh/Salt
Pond never to be seen again. This storm was just the beginning of major erosion
that goes on to this day.
