Boy I remember that day also. Sick 7 month old baby who had had the coup & couldn't open the doors too.
My husband plowed snow for GR & Dr John who started the 1st emergency unit was a customer of ours on Leonard. He directed me on how to open his bronchial tube so he could breath, Praise the Lord!
It surely was scary. Everything was at a stand still. The snow plowers were transporting medical staff to & from the hospital's.
We had to hire front end loaders to move the snow in most circumstances from commercial businesses. Was way to much to move & no place to put it.
I remember this storm. I grew up in suburban Detroit, and this storm caused the schools to close for two days, the only time my schools closed for weather. I shoveled the snow off our driveway and sidewalk, then had to chop the ice underneath the snow.
I was living in East Lansing. We had 24" overnight. We were expecting my uncle, superintendent of schools in Coloma, to drive in the night of the blizzard. I remember getting up and running to the front hallway window to look out.....and I couldn't see his car (somehow I ignored the fact that I couldn't see ANY cars but hey, I was 9 years old). I ran downstairs to ask my mom why Uncle Bill hadn't come. She told me he was there, sleeping in the guest room.
We couldn't open the front door but we could get out the back...only because we had a Dutch door. I got dressed and tried to walk to our detached garage, and promptly sunk into the drift up to my shoulders. Finally got up onto the drift and shimmied out to the garage on my stomach and got the shovel. I shoveled about 2' and gave up. Took the shovel to the house to leave the shoveling to my dad. However, our neighbors across the street had a Golden Retriever named Gus who did a lot of trail breaking that day and, unlike me, he enjoyed it.
No school for over a week (we walked to school...Glencairn Elementary on Harrison (we lived in a spot boarded by Harrison, Abbot, Grand River and Saginaw right off campus). When we did go back we had to walk in groups and at least one person had to have a broom handle with a "flag" tied to the top because the piles of snow at the intersections were over 10'. During the week+ we were off school we were doing things like sledding and tobogganing off our garage roof and playing on campus (my best friend's dad was Bernie Dorow, daughter of Al Dorow, assistant football coach. Oh.....and watching the students in the dorms jump out of 2nd floor rooms into the snow drifts..
Two storms I remember the most: the ice storm of (I think) 1977. The ice brought down so many trees and branches, it seemed unreal. The only other time I saw that many trees down in Cutlerville was in May 1998 when the derecho straight-line windstorm swept through. That brought a tree down on our roof.
I continue to be amazed at some of the weather we get in the Holland area. I still remember back in the early 1960's. My family lived where the Holland airport is now and we had such a huge storm that they had to get special equipment in to clear US-31 (now Blue Star Highway). The banks were so high that my older brother and sister could go to the front yard, stand up on the bank and throw snowballs DOWN on the top of the semis going through. School was closed for two weeks, I think. Thanks Bill for the memories you post!!!
Great story Bill, keep em coming.
Love these stories Bill! Please write a book. Your memory and detail is amazing.
Boy I remember that day also. Sick 7 month old baby who had had the coup & couldn't open the doors too.
My husband plowed snow for GR & Dr John who started the 1st emergency unit was a customer of ours on Leonard. He directed me on how to open his bronchial tube so he could breath, Praise the Lord!
It surely was scary. Everything was at a stand still. The snow plowers were transporting medical staff to & from the hospital's.
We had to hire front end loaders to move the snow in most circumstances from commercial businesses. Was way to much to move & no place to put it.
I remember this storm. I grew up in suburban Detroit, and this storm caused the schools to close for two days, the only time my schools closed for weather. I shoveled the snow off our driveway and sidewalk, then had to chop the ice underneath the snow.
I was living in East Lansing. We had 24" overnight. We were expecting my uncle, superintendent of schools in Coloma, to drive in the night of the blizzard. I remember getting up and running to the front hallway window to look out.....and I couldn't see his car (somehow I ignored the fact that I couldn't see ANY cars but hey, I was 9 years old). I ran downstairs to ask my mom why Uncle Bill hadn't come. She told me he was there, sleeping in the guest room.
We couldn't open the front door but we could get out the back...only because we had a Dutch door. I got dressed and tried to walk to our detached garage, and promptly sunk into the drift up to my shoulders. Finally got up onto the drift and shimmied out to the garage on my stomach and got the shovel. I shoveled about 2' and gave up. Took the shovel to the house to leave the shoveling to my dad. However, our neighbors across the street had a Golden Retriever named Gus who did a lot of trail breaking that day and, unlike me, he enjoyed it.
No school for over a week (we walked to school...Glencairn Elementary on Harrison (we lived in a spot boarded by Harrison, Abbot, Grand River and Saginaw right off campus). When we did go back we had to walk in groups and at least one person had to have a broom handle with a "flag" tied to the top because the piles of snow at the intersections were over 10'. During the week+ we were off school we were doing things like sledding and tobogganing off our garage roof and playing on campus (my best friend's dad was Bernie Dorow, daughter of Al Dorow, assistant football coach. Oh.....and watching the students in the dorms jump out of 2nd floor rooms into the snow drifts..
Fun times.....
Two storms I remember the most: the ice storm of (I think) 1977. The ice brought down so many trees and branches, it seemed unreal. The only other time I saw that many trees down in Cutlerville was in May 1998 when the derecho straight-line windstorm swept through. That brought a tree down on our roof.
I continue to be amazed at some of the weather we get in the Holland area. I still remember back in the early 1960's. My family lived where the Holland airport is now and we had such a huge storm that they had to get special equipment in to clear US-31 (now Blue Star Highway). The banks were so high that my older brother and sister could go to the front yard, stand up on the bank and throw snowballs DOWN on the top of the semis going through. School was closed for two weeks, I think. Thanks Bill for the memories you post!!!
I really enjoy seeing these articles of West Michigan Weather history. Thank you so much for reporting these.