When I was a kid growing up in Hull, my mom use to tell stories of the snow storms and cold winters in Hull when she was a kid (she born in Hull).
My favorite story was the one about the year it was so cold the bay froze so solid that people were taking walks to Bumpkin Island.
During the Blizzard of 78, mom was still living in Hull with my brother Bill. I was living in Brockton so I missed the big dance.
This was moms story from 1978.
Bill had gone out that day and ended up stuck at a friends house. So mom sat out the storm by herself. She told me in later years that she was quit frightened.
The storm roared through with strong winds and heavy snow. She was amazed when the ocean waves came rolling down A Street and emptied into the bay. She had never seen anything like it.
One good thing was the snow was piled up so high that it kept the sea water from getting into anyone's house.
She had lost power like many others so she sat through the night hoping all would be well in the morning.
The storm hadn't done any damage to the house at One Central Ave, not a drop of water in the basement. Her car was in the driveway protected by the snow, so things weren't so bad.
Now the town had a dilemma. All the streets were flooded with sea water and the sewer system was flooded, frozen and full of snow. What to do?
They decided to take very large trucks with plows and push the water into the bay. That's when things went bad.
The trucks pushed so much water that it rolled over the snow banks and went right into everyone's basement including moms. She lost everything. Her furnace, hot water heater, washer & dryer and her car filled up to the top of the dashboard with sea water.
That was about all she told me.
In 1985 I was helping mom clean up the basement and I found a hidden metal box under dads old work bench. When I pulled it out and opened it up I found rusty tools sitting in, yup, sea water from the Blizzard of 78. Boy did it stink.
I have been working on this web page for a long time, 9 years as a matter of fact. This is actually my second site. The first was lost during the dot com bust.
I was very involved in the 25th anniversary of the Blizzard events going on in the Boston area. I talked with mom many times about it. Funny thing was she never told me she had pictures and news papers and all sorts of goodies from the Blizzard. But she did, and I just found it all.
I've gone on long enough... here are some of moms Blizzard keepsakes. I will add more as I spend time going through them.
Please everyone, if you have pictures from the Blizzard, please share them. I would love to see them and add them to this page. Enjoy.
