WotAGuy Posted January 8, 2014 Posted January 8, 2014 well, we both went to Williamsville North and were there at the same time (I graduated 1976). judging by the landmarks you cite (the produce place at Millersport & Transit) and your use of the term genny cream 'pounders', chances are good we were part of the same social circle, or at least knew who eachother were. Gee...I never thought of me being in a "social circle" - I just assumed we were degenerates
outsidethebox Posted January 8, 2014 Posted January 8, 2014 The snow blew all the way to Rochester,. too? I thought it came off Lake Erie? I just remembered that the first winter I skied was 76-77. Good year to start! oh yeah, we got hit pretty hard.
Azalin Posted January 8, 2014 Posted January 8, 2014 Gee...I never thought of me being in a "social circle" - I just assumed we were degenerates now I'm certain we knew eachother.
Chef Jim Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 I was 15 and was a planner even back then. Before the snow started flying I went out and bought a carton of smokes. Several days in to the travel ban my mom asked if I had any and I said no. I was 15 I couldn't admit to that. A couple days later she said she was cleaning my room and found the carton under my bed. It didn't dawn on me until a few decades later that "heeeeeeeeeyyyyyy, wait a minute. Cleaning my room?" She never cleaned my room. I kept it spotless. She was dying for a smoke and went looking. I called her out on it recently and told me she didn't remember.
DDD Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 I was 8 at the time. My memory of the Blizzard of '77 was looking out the front window of my parents home on West Ferry and seeing a bulldozer and loader move hills of snow taking huge sections of asphalt with it as the snow was cleared. Before the days of Monster Trucks, construction equipment and firetrucks were are a boys dream!
bbb Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 oh yeah, we got hit pretty hard. That's really interesting. I never knew that. Somebody mentioned losing power above, and the one thing our family said was that we think we got lucky having the Ice Storm 10 months before. It wasn't as cold then, and I think we had all brand new lines that withstood the blizzard. I couldn't imagine not having heat for that thing.
bbb Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 CNN thinks the criteria for a blizzard is different in Buffalo - LOL..............The chick is actually the daughter of Phyllis George and John Y. Brown, the guy who stole our Braves: http://www.buffalonews.com/gusto/television/this-is-cnn-and-this-is-cnns-definition-of-a-blizzard-20140109
Pete Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 I was in second grade I think and went to school that day(Gardenville in West Seneca). The snow came on so fast- we got snowed in at school. I remember having dinner there(ravioli), then sleeping on my mat. I was awoken in the middle of the night and someone loaded up their station wagon with kids and drove us home in the middle of the blizzard in the middle of the night. I got dropped off at the end of my street and had to walk a couple blocks. It was dumping snow and I remember getting blown side to side. I tried to soak it all in and will always remember that walk, but eventually I was so tired- I went home and went to bed. I remember helicopters flying over frequently dropping off supplies in the aftermath
Gordio Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 I was in second grade I think and went to school that day(Gardenville in West Seneca). The snow came on so fast- we got snowed in at school. I remember having dinner there(ravioli), then sleeping on my mat. I was awoken in the middle of the night and someone loaded up their station wagon with kids and drove us home in the middle of the blizzard in the middle of the night. I got dropped off at the end of my street and had to walk a couple blocks. It was dumping snow and I remember getting blown side to side. I tried to soak it all in and will always remember that walk, but eventually I was so tired- I went home and went to bed. I remember helicopters flying over frequently dropping off supplies in the aftermath I was 4 so I don't really remember it but that story is amazing. Could you imagine in today's world a bunch of 6 year olds getting dropped off in the end of the street in the dead of winter in the middle of the night & allowed to walk home in the worst blizzard this area has ever seen? My wife does not even like when my son rides his bike around the block in the middle of summer & he is 10.
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 (edited) Sorry, I am gonna go on a rant. :-) On the contrary Gordio. One of my pet peeves when people talk this way. Glad Pete and the others talk fondly about it, but it was still a stupid thing to do, even for 1977. It isn't a sign of the times, he and the others got lucky, plain and simple. When on God's good earth do you send a child, let alone an adult, out into a blizzard? Even if it is 82 feet? That is the problem w/the times now, we talk fondly about the gambles one takes and then over compensate the other way thinking all the stories will end the same way. It is a great story, but in any era, it should not be repeated, given the severity of the situation. Again, just plain dumb for any era. It isn't about "pussification" or a sign of the times. It is about not pressing your luck the second time. I am reminded of a story my father tells when he was breaking in on the railroad @ the end of the steam era. An old man would come into work everyday all hunched over... There he would shovel coal all day causing him to be said hunched over... He would them go home still hunched over and then return the next day in the same positional state. When he walked, it looked like he was shoveling coal. The next day he would do it all over again... Day in and day out, year after year. The guy would say: "Ah, they don't make kids like they used to!" My father would reply: "Yeah they sure don't, we aren't stupid anymore!" This from over 60 years ago. And this story from over 120 years ago: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Blizzard Plainview, Nebraska: Lois Royce found herself trapped with three of her students in her schoolhouse. By 3 p.m., they had run out of heating fuel. Her boarding house was only 82 yards (75 m) away, so she attempted to lead the children there. However, visibility was so poor that they became lost and the children, two nine-year-old boys and a six-year-old girl, froze to death. The teacher survived, but her feet were frostbitten and had to be amputated. In Great Plains, South Dakota, the children were rescued. Two men tied a rope to the closest house, and headed for the school. There, they tied off the other end of the rope, and led the children to safety. Mira Valley, Nebraska: Minnie Freeman safely led thirteen children from her schoolhouse to her home, one half mile (800 m) away. The rumor she used a rope to keep the children together during the blinding storm is widely circulated, but one of the children claims that is not true. She took them to the boarding house she lived at about a mile away and all of her pupils survived. Many children in similar conditions around the Great Plains were not so lucky, as 235 people were killed, most of them children who couldn't get home from school. That year, "Song of the Great Blizzard: Thirteen Were Saved" or "Nebraska's Fearless Maid", was written and recorded in her honor by William Vincent and published by Lyon & Healy. I am not trying to be a killjoy, the fond memories/stories are great. I am glad they worked out. But let's put things into perspective and look @ things for what they were and hope to not repeat the same mistakes. It shouldn't be a springboard to slam the present. There are many things that we can get over protective about. Claiming that we are getting too over protective is what every generation lays on the next. Again, great stories, not slamming them. But, some were big gambles. It is like bragging about driving home drunk. Well I made it, didn't I? It must be okay! Everybody else must be a bunch of wimps! Huh? Big difference between a 6 year old child riding their bike around the block or getting sent out 82 feet into a blizzard. Again Pete, no offense... Cool story! Edited January 10, 2014 by ExiledInIllinois
bbb Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 They must have known they had extra tough kids. I thought the whole area had off that Thursday and Friday
Gordio Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Sorry, I am gonna go on a rant. :-) On the contrary Gordio. One of my pet peeves when people talk this way. Glad Pete and the others talk fondly about it, but it was still a stupid thing to do, even for 1977. It isn't a sign of the times, he and the others got lucky, plain and simple. When on God's good earth do you send a child, let alone an adult, out into a blizzard? Even if it is 82 feet? That is the problem w/the times now, we talk fondly about the gambles one takes and then over compensate the other way thinking all the stories will end the same way. It is a great story, but in any era, it should not be repeated, given the severity of the situation. Again, just plain dumb for any era. It isn't about "pussification" or a sign of the times. It is about not pressing your luck the second time. I am reminded of a story my father tells when he was breaking in on the railroad @ the end of the steam era. An old man would come into work everyday all hunched over... There he would shovel coal all day causing him to be said hunched over... He would them go home still hunched over and then return the next day in the same positional state. When he walked, it looked like he was shoveling coal. The next day he would do it all over again... Day in and day out, year after year. The guy would say: "Ah, they don't make kids like they used to!" My father would reply: "Yeah they sure don't, we aren't stupid anymore!" This from over 60 years ago. And this story from over 120 years ago: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Blizzard Plainview, Nebraska: Lois Royce found herself trapped with three of her students in her schoolhouse. By 3 p.m., they had run out of heating fuel. Her boarding house was only 82 yards (75 m) away, so she attempted to lead the children there. However, visibility was so poor that they became lost and the children, two nine-year-old boys and a six-year-old girl, froze to death. The teacher survived, but her feet were frostbitten and had to be amputated. In Great Plains, South Dakota, the children were rescued. Two men tied a rope to the closest house, and headed for the school. There, they tied off the other end of the rope, and led the children to safety. Mira Valley, Nebraska: Minnie Freeman safely led thirteen children from her schoolhouse to her home, one half mile (800 m) away. The rumor she used a rope to keep the children together during the blinding storm is widely circulated, but one of the children claims that is not true. She took them to the boarding house she lived at about a mile away and all of her pupils survived. Many children in similar conditions around the Great Plains were not so lucky, as 235 people were killed, most of them children who couldn't get home from school. That year, "Song of the Great Blizzard: Thirteen Were Saved" or "Nebraska's Fearless Maid", was written and recorded in her honor by William Vincent and published by Lyon & Healy. I am not trying to be a killjoy, the fond memories/stories are great. I am glad they worked out. But let's put things into perspective and look @ things for what they were and hope to not repeat the same mistakes. It shouldn't be a springboard to slam the present. There are many things that we can get over protective about. Claiming that we are getting too over protective is what every generation lays on the next. Again, great stories, not slamming them. But, some were big gambles. It is like bragging about driving home drunk. Well I made it, didn't I? It must be okay! Everybody else must be a bunch of wimps! Huh? Big difference between a 6 year old child riding their bike around the block or getting sent out 82 feet into a blizzard. Again Pete, no offense... Cool story! Point well made. But I was not really inferring that it was the right thing to do. I was just stating noway that would happen today & kind of amazed at the difference in just a generation of the way we protect our kids.
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 (edited) Point well made. But I was not really inferring that it was the right thing to do. I was just stating noway that would happen today & kind of amazed at the difference in just a generation of the way we protect our kids. Fair enough, Pete, yours, and my parents are probably of all the same generation. I chaulk it up to them being a little more lax, as mine were totally lax... My brother was having keggers/beer blasts @ 17 in our basement... The only requirement was, if it was winter, check your shoes/boots @ the door! Sure the drinking age was 18... But man, my parents look back and realize how stupid they were for allowing that kinda behavior... There were many incidents, that thankfully got diffused. Sure, we can say we are more protective, act as "helicopter parents." Yet, man were times lax years ago. Then too much sh*t happens and the seesaw tips the other way. I just hate slacking what goes on now for what went on in the past. Every generation needs to be looked @ w/a critical eye. To quote Billy Joel: "You know the good ole days weren't always good and tommorrow isn't as bad as it seems." Or something like that. Again, no offense, just a pet peeve. Life will always be a balance. Edited January 10, 2014 by ExiledInIllinois
DC Tom Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Fair enough, Pete, yours, and my parents are probably of all the same generation. I chaulk it up to them being a little more lax, as mine were totally lax... My brother was having keggers/beer blasts @ 17 in our basement... The only requirement was, if it was winter, check your shoes/boots @ the door! Sure the drinking age was 18... But man, my parents look back and realize how stupid they were for allowing that kinda behavior... There were many incidents, that thankfully got diffused. Sure, we can say we are more protective, act as "helicopter parents." Yet, man were times lax years ago. Then too much sh*t happens and the seesaw tips the other way. I just hate slacking what goes on now for what went on in the past. Every generation needs to be looked @ w/a critical eye. To quote Billy Joel: "You know the good ole days weren't always good and tommorrow isn't as bad as it seems." Or something like that. Again, no offense, just a pet peeve. Life will always be a balance. "Lax" is probably the wrong word for it. That generation (my parents') was just more risk tolerant than we our today. And their parents' generation (Depression-era) even more so. That's not lassitude - my parents certainly weren't unconcerned that I could be snatched off the street walking to a friend's house. They were just aware that the risk, while non-zero, was still very low. If anything, the attitude towards risk nowadays is more lax, given that the attitude is that any non-zero risk must be avoided at all costs.
bbb Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Does anybody know of any kid who died of something that parents of today would not be so lax about?
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 "Lax" is probably the wrong word for it. That generation (my parents') was just more risk tolerant than we our today. And their parents' generation (Depression-era) even more so. That's not lassitude - my parents certainly weren't unconcerned that I could be snatched off the street walking to a friend's house. They were just aware that the risk, while non-zero, was still very low. If anything, the attitude towards risk nowadays is more lax, given that the attitude is that any non-zero risk must be avoided at all costs. Yeah, I suppose you are right. We had a neighbor lady during the 1960's and 1970's that would always pick up hitchikers. She was my parent's age, born in the 1930's. Always picking up kids, hippies, whoever were thumbing for a ride. She'd say: "Oh, I hate to see those poor kids walk!" My mother would tell her: "You gotta be crazy!" LoL. And this was after all stories about wierdo hitchikers, the big movie (when did that come out, 1950's), etc... Yeah, very risk tolerant! Too funny.
Pete Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Thanks, I am glad you all enjoyed my story! Yeah, even then I thought the ride was a risk, but I am so thankful that they did! For one, I felt so free waking home that night during the storm. No curfew, no mother saying "its a blizzard, get inside!". I felt so free as a kid and am thankful I grew up when I did. I wonder what it feels like to be a kid today. But I am certain they didn't feel as free as I did as a child. Part of the reason you would never see a parent drive home a strangers kid today is the litigious society we live in today. As a kid- we didn't have video games. I sprung out of bed at sunrise, played outside(army,hockey, football, baseball) until it was lunch time, then went back out and played until dinner, then went back out, and played until sundown. And to paraphrase an email I received- we drank straight from the garden hose, didn't wear bike helmets, if we had a beef with someone- we fought them- and became friends after. No police were called. We were hardly ever bored and did not need constant stimulation. We didn't always wear seatbelts. My mother drove a pinto. Heck, my Dad even rewarded me with a sip of beer after I cut the lawn. I love my childhood in West Seneca!
ExiledInIllinois Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Does anybody know of any kid who died of something that parents of today would not be so lax about? Yeah, a friend of my cousin... Teenagers, got drunk in the winter and they left him passed out in a snowbank, he froze to death. I suppose the parents knew they were drinking... Heck, like I said before, drinking was tolerated among youth. Tom summed it up better. Lax is a poor choice of words.
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