Curmudgeon's Corner

Weather Events

Posted by Al Campbell on April 12, 2010

Potpourri

Weather events stick in the mind for many years.  It is difficult to recall with clarity how much of what is remembered is real versus how much has been borne of periodic embellishments or simply eroded with the years.

This is the date of a major snow event in 1973, and I remember that event with much clarity. 

I worked in an office on 115^th and North Avenue then and recall that we watched the growing snow finally making the decision that our office would close at about 2:30PM that day.  I lived on County Line Road in Germantown.  That was a normal drive of something on the order of 20 or 25 minutes.

I recall that traffic simply crawled if it moved at all.  The too typical winter driver who spins out on a hill or slides down backward was out in full force that day.  Snarls were everywhere.

Like most others, I continued to try for more level streets that I thought might be less traveled; and, like most, I didn’t find what I was looking for.

I finally made it to the corner of Silver Spring and Pilgrim Road and made it into the Clark station parking lot area to buy gasoline.  I became hopelessly stuck and had to abandon my vehicle there.  I managed to catch a ride with a man who had a four-wheel drive pick-up truck and he got me to within a few blocks of home.  The hazy part is just what time I finally straggled into the house, but my recollection is that darkness had fallen and that my wife was frantic not knowing if I was safe.  I think that it was about 7:30PM or so.

The next morning came and gave me the opportunity to go back to the Clark station and dig out my car, put some gas in the tank and get it home.

As the daffodils pop up and the leaves begin to appear, I remember that winter can smack us down even at this seemingly late date.