Rock N’ Roll Blizzard of 1978

You would have to be living under a rock or in south Florida to not be aware of the weather in the U.S. over the past week or so. There has been major snowstorms and a serious cold wave hitting as winter finally makes its arrival known with emphasis. If you are of a certain age (mine), you will undoubtedly remember the “Blizzard of 1978”. If you grew up in northeast Ohio like my family and I, you definitely remember it! Again, those of us of a certain age sit back at parties and when people start talking about how hard winter can be, we let them run with the line for a little bit and then we drop the hammer on them with something that goes like this: “That’s a nice little story you have there friend, but sit down and let me tell you a REAL story about a Blizzard you young whippersnapper!” “Back in my day….” Am I really that old?

First, a little background. When I was of school age WE WENT TO SCHOOL in the winter. In Akron, Ohio the school commissioner was a man named Conrad C. Ott. Rumor had it that the deciding factor if we were going to go to school came down to Mr. Ott’s ability to get his newspaper in the morning. On the snowy cold winter days if he got the Beacon Journal of the Plain Dealer, our rear ends were heading to school. We may have all looked like Ralphie’s brother from A Christmas Story with so many sweaters and coats on that we couldn’t put our arms down to our side and never mind that we probably had bread bags inside our boots and newspaper inside our coats, we were going.

I moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1984 and they close school before a single flake has fallen here. Just on the possibility that it might snow! I have a conspiracy theory that the grocery stores are behind it, but I can’t prove it. Anytime they need to move some milk and bread, a weather report comes out that it MIGHT snow. That’s enough to shut it all down. Creampuffs!

Much like this year, the Midwest winter at the end of 1977 had been somewhat mild through the holidays. However, in January of 1978 the worst winter in the past 100 years started to hit and it hit like Dick Butkus. It snowed so much it was called the “White Hurricane” and it also featured some of the lowest barometric pressure readings ever recorded in the continental United States. As if the snow was not enough to deal with, wind gusts were said to be as high as 80 miles per hour and visibility was near zero. This dropped the dreaded wind chill factor to minus 50 degrees. The “Great Blizzard of 1978” would shut down schools, businesses and transportation for days. The storm was so intense that the Ohio Turnpike was shut down for the first time in history. By the end of it more than 50 people died as a result of the storm, while 5,000 National Guard members were called in to help.

We had to go live with relatives for about a week since we lost power in the house. When we came back the shampoo was frozen in the shower. I still think that winter was the catalyst for me eventually moving south for the milder winters (I know…Creampuff!)

I was in my senior year of high school and had a huge case of senioritis. You know that disease that hits when you are a few months away from graduation but still had to finish it out, but your head wasn’t really into it. So, I didn’t care too much that school was shut down. THAT’S how bad it was. Conrad didn’t get his paper apparently.

My poor Mom was classified as an essential employee because she worked at the hospital. We had so much snow covering our house and yard that there was no way she was getting out to go to work. Or so we thought. When she called in that she was stranded they told her to get ready and that they were sending the National Guard to come and get her and then they showed up knocking on the door a few minutes later. Back then they didn’t shovel side roads until the main roads had been cleared. It wouldn’t stop snowing so the snow removal guys took some time to show up on Stevenson Avenue.

Hey Rut, that’s a nice weather report but what does that have to do we rock n’ roll buddy? I’m glad you asked! Hang in there, I’m going somewhere with this.

I ran with a lot of guys who liked to go to concerts. We went to a bunch. The local Cleveland radio station, WMMS “The Buzzard” was voted the best rock station by Rolling Stone magazine for about 10 years in a row. When major acts went on tour, Cleveland was a place most if not all of them made sure to visit. I loved it as a kid, we could see shows all the time.

Back in the late 70’s if you wanted tickets for a concert you had to find the closest Ticketron outlet and wait in line with the masses and hope they didn’t run out before you got to the front of the line. Some of my buddies and I would take turns getting tickets for shows, which meant when it was your turn you had to stand in line and if it was a BIG show you might have to bring a sleeping bag to get a good spot in the line. For the Led Zeppelin show, one of our guys was in line for two days! The tickets usually went on sale months before the show and so we sat there in suspense as time chugged along until it would finally be time to see the show.

During the winter of 1978 there was one show that we had circled, and we made sure that we had tickets. The “hottest band in the land,” KISS. Kiss was playing on January 8th. My blog today shares a story of how the hardest winter of the century kicked off on the same day we were scheduled to see KISS at the Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio.

But first…A Joke:

A lifeguard told a mother to make her young son stop peeing in the pool. “Oh, what’s the big deal?” the mother protested. “All kids from time to time will pee in a pool.” “Oh really?” asked the lifeguard. “From the diving board?”

A Verse to Contemplate:

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life - Job 33:4

Have I Told You This One?

As the day of the KISS show approached, I started to get really excited. I am a sucker for all the glitz and over the stop stuff this band delivered in their stage show. They had costumes, explosions, smoke bombs, drum and platform risers, lights, sirens, flash bombs and a ton of other stuff. Paul, Gene, Peter and Ace were at their summit of popularity that they had been building since the mid 1970s. They had just released their second live record, Alive II, which was hoping to continue their rise and the stage show was being advertised as the best out there. I had all the records and knew most of the songs and could not wait for my first time to see them perform. As I’m sitting around the day of the show, which was a Sunday, I asked my dad if i could borrow his car to drive to my buddy’s house. We were all meeting there and a mutual friend was going to drive us in his old 1966 Ford. Dad looked outside and it was snowing HARD. He said he didn’t think it would be a great idea for me to drive his car in a blizzard. He had heard the weather reports, and I was in the process of doing the best sales job of my life. I finally wore him down and he had just one condition. I had to have the car back so he could go to work at 5:30 am. No problem, Pops, you can trust ole Markus P. so off I went. I had just recently got my driver’s license and was not as good of a driver as I thought I was. When you are 17 you can convince yourself that almost any bad idea is a GREAT idea. Driving in a blizzard to a rock show was probably not the wisest decision I would ever make, but c’mon I paid $8 for those tickets….I HAD to go, right?

They built the Coliseum in between Cleveland and Akron in the early 1970s anticipating that the two cities were growing closer together and eventually it would draw people from both cities to events. The newly awarded Cavaliers of the NBA had their home in the middle of cow pastures known as Richfield. It was great for us Akron folks, we didn’t have to drive all the way into Cleveland and the access to the highway was perfect. However, as we were headed for the show the snow started coming down in historic levels. It was being measured in feet per hour versus inches per hour. We decided to go the “back way” and avoid the interstates. It was taking FOREVER! The snow was that kind of snow that hypnotizes you as you drive into it.

We were pregaming on the way and goofing around and trying to see through the fogged-up windows and missed our turn at 303 (if you know, you know) and ended up in Twinsburg before realizing we needed to turn around. The snow was the real wet kind that you can make snowballs the size of watermelons in seconds. Kinda cool but it was having a bad impact on the old car we were in. Everything was getting wet and clogged. We stopped for gas and once we refueled, the car would not start. NO WAY! Not now. This was back when there were no cell phones so we were stranded in a blizzard in the middle of nowhere with the only thing of value being $8 KISS tickets that were about to be worthless since we couldn’t get to the show. We sat there in the gas station trying to come up with any idea to get us to the show.

As I sat there, I could hardly see five feet in front of me. We could make out car lights every once in a while, and we would run out and throw up a thumb and hoped someone could give us a ride. No luck. The gas station owner said “Boys, I’m sorry but I’m closing the station and heading home.” Now we are out in a blizzard in the dark and it is snowing like crazy. We look down the street and we see some lights headed our way. We run to the side of the road next to this huge ditch and squint our eyes as the lights get closer. We put out our thumbs and all notice immediately that it is a large snow scrapper coming at us in a big hurry. We all jump into the ditch and get buried by an avalanche of snow. We dig ourselves out and accept defeat. We are not going to see the show. No Deuce, Strutter, Detroit Rock City, Shout It Out Loud…NOTHING.

As we are walking back across the street to the gas station with our heads down and our spirits deflated, a Chevy Impala rolls up stocked full of girls! (I KNOW!). They asked us where we were going, and we told them to KISS concert. They said that they were headed the show too and would give us a ride to the Coliseum, but we would have to get a ride home. We’re Back!! Off to the show we go, and the snow is piling up. As a card-carrying member of the KISS Army, I would not be deterred from my assignment to Rock and Roll All Nite and (you know the rest).

In young humans the frontal lobes are the last part of the brain to develop which is why so many young people make terrible decisions. This is the part of the brain that allows you to determine if something is dangerous or not. They literally have brain damage until the frontal lobes are fully developed. Development usually is finished by 18 but some don’t fully develop until people are 30. Ours apparently were in the later versus the former.

These girls were great and got all of us to the show. The weather also delayed the band a long time to get there, and the show started late so we did not miss a note. We found our seats, took a small breath and then the house lights went down, and the show was on. WHAT A SHOW it was! Halfway through the show Paul Stanley gave an update that it was still snowing hard. It started to sink in that we were stuck without a ride home and there was literally five feet of new snow in the parking lot. No one was going anywhere for some time.

After the show ended, we started looking around for some of our friends that we knew were at the show and asked for a ride home. Somehow, we found a ride for each of the four of us and it took hours to get back to Akron which was only about 20 miles away. I arrived back at my car at my buddy’s house around 2:00 am completely exhausted. I still had a few hours left to get my Dad’s car back for him to use so I needed to scoot.

It took me a solid 25 minutes to dig out the car and warm it up. As I got in, I cut the wheels too much and the front right tire went over some newly laid curbs. The car was now stuck. I got out and said naughty words and went in to call my dad. Just what I did NOT want to do, call Dad in the last two hours of his sleep and tell him his car is stuck. The same car he didn’t want me to take in the first place! I dialed him up and his response was a classic: “Thanks for calling Mark, just have the car home in time for me to go to work” and then he hung up as I was sitting there saying “but..but..but.” My buddy asked “What did Wayne say?” I told him but I’m pretty sure dad was using a lot of sarcasm (Ya think?).

So back out in the snow I go. I tried a bunch of things that didn’t work to free the car. I was amazed how clear the mind is when you are up against the clock and your life may be over. As a last resort. I took the jack out of the car and jacked up the front a bit and then ran as hard as I could and hit the car hard enough to pop it back over the curb. It worked, I couldn’t belive it. To this day, that was the day I became a full believer in guardian angels! Mine gets migraines.

I look at the clock and it is 5:00 am. I slowly drive home and hit the driveway and carefully put the car in park and take another long breath. I get out, open the back door and hand my Dad the keys as he is heading out for work. “How was the show?” he asked.

“Unbelievable, I said, Unbelievable.”

A Prayer:

Father, when I rest in You, it’s so much easier to stand firm in my faith. Help me to keep my eyes on You no matter what life brings. Thank You that I am your beloved and have nothing to fear.

Book Recommendation:

Everybody’s Normal Till You Get To Know Them by John Ortberg (2003)

Music Recommendation:

Strangers in the Night by UFO (1978)