Don Canney

Forty-four years ago on February 6, a storm like no other we have seen since hammered Nashua and surrounding communities with a force that would make the Mighty Thor himself shriek.

Preparing today for superstorms, as we did last weekend (which wasn’t quite like the “Big One” 44 years ago) often puts me back to that day when the world seemed to stop in what is now simply known as The Blizzard of ’78. Bear in mind, the weather forecasting then was nowhere near as precise and techno savvy as is it today, where they can predict snowfall by the hour.

For those who can, do you remember where you were on that snowy day in 1978?

I was a twenty something year old living on Chestnut Street, commuting to the Burlington, Mass., Almy’s Department store. Oddly enough, there was an Almy’s in Nashua, but I worked in Burlington. We had closed the store 30 minutes early, which was probably the reason I was not one of those ill-fated folks stranded on Rte. 128, 93 or 95.

I was invited to stay at my fiancé’s house in Salem, a much closer drive than Nashua. Most of Rte. 93 was in whiteout mode. I was driving a 1973 Malibu, rear-wheel drive with no snow tires. Yes, I was young and foolish back then. While attempting to find the exit to Salem in the whiteout, unbeknownst to me, I was tailgating a tractor trailer, visible to me only when he applied his brakes, and his brake lights were staring me in the face. As I slowly braked, I discovered I was then on the off ramp! The rest of the ride was a blur, ending as I approached my fiancé’s house, tires spinning, control at a minimum and I floored it, attempting to make it to the driveway at the bottom of a hill. The car slid onto the lawn, which at that point, was good enough for me. There it remained until the next day.

New Hampshire was essentially closed for a few days and the state of Massachusetts remained closed for the entire week. The official snow accumulation was said to be 27 inches, but drifts were measured in feet, not inches. Most stores were closed, as they could not get supplies. The few that were open, like a Cumberland Farms in Salem, were inundated, with shelves quickly stripped. I remember calling that store. Someone picked up and said, “We’re open!” Then a click. It was a telling message.

The next big, or should I say gargantuan challenge, was clean-up. Snowblower? Nope. Plow? Nope. It was shovel, shovel, shovel. Miraculously, we still had power and heat. That was a plus.

Clean up took several days. I did not return to work until the following week, as again, the state of Massachusetts officially shut down while the National Guard attempted to clear cars off routes 128, 93 and 95. Many people remained stranded in those cars for days. Some did not survive.

I contend part of the reason for the craziness and panic we see today in grocery stores whenever a major storm is predicted, particularly for those who lived it, harkens back to that day in February, 1978 when we were walloped with what to this day, is the storm to which all storms are compared. Many were stuck with whatever food they had in the house. Some had power, many did not. Some had heat, many did not. Roads, stores, and banks were closed (no such thing as an ATM or on-line banking back then). And gas stations were not equipped with pay at the pump, so if you had no cash, you could not buy gas for that generator if you were so lucky to have one or lucky enough to find a gas station open.

There was, however, an amazing regional population boom about nine months later. Hmmm. How many of you were born in November of 1978?

Author Vesta M. Kelley once wrote, “Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.” Indeed!

Don Canney is a freelance writer and professional voice artist. He was born and raised in downtown Nashua with great interest in Nashua history circa 1950-1970. He now resides in Litchfield.