Thirty-one years ago my Whirlygirl was born. It would be 27 years before she whirled into my life but she was worth the wait. Not a day goes by where she doesn't make me laugh with funny stories and her unique perspective on life. We are currently in the mountains of Vermont hunkered down with a blazing wood-burning stove and plans for a fun weekend. Happy Birthday Whirlygirl, you rock!
Exactly 32 years ago today the “Blizzard of ‘78” walloped the East coast giving all children an unexpected week off from school. Some areas of Rhode Island received up to 4 feet of snow. It was a glorious time to be a kid. I vividly recall stepping outside and sinking up to my chest in white wonderment. I lived at the dead end of a street and endless snowplowing produced an impressive, sled-able mountain of snow. This mountain of snow also enabled me to fashion an elaborate snow fort with a tunnel system that rivaled the New York Subway.
Sure 100 people died, there were many injuries, and countless people lost electricity, but as a 9-year old kid I was blissfully unaware of any of these sad facts. Oddly enough I wasn’t able to find a single picture of this once-in-a-lifetime event in any of our family albums. You would think that my parents would have shot a few rolls of film to document this rare phenomenon but I suppose they were too busy trying to figure out how to keep us alive. Fortunately there’s a terrific documentary that can be found on YouTube that captures this natural disaster.
15 comments:
Happy Birthday to our favorite Whirlygirl!!! Sounds like you guys are in for a great weekend - have a blast!
We had some good blizzard of '78 stories - our Dad got caught on 195 and ended up spending the night in the civic center. He walked most of the way home the next day. Then he and my Mom decided the best thing to do would be to get out all the booze they had and put it in the snow, they put out a couple of lawn chairs and invited all the neighbors over. Gotta love the 70's.
she's smart as a whip
quirky, beautiful, funny
happy birthday Girl!
Sure she smells a bit
But she's got a heart of gold
Whirly birthday girl
You look so damn mischievous in that picture! I forgot, what's the deal with the old man in the background?
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
It's Whirlygirl's birthday,
So who won Haiku Hump Day?
Happy Birthday, Whirly!!! :)
Happy birthday Whirly! Have a great time this weekend.
JPX, you couldn't get a picture of her whole head?
Ah yes, the Blizzard. I remember not being able to go to Benny's to get the Micronauts toy my mom had promised me, and when I got upset I was sternly reminded that my father would probably not make it home that night.
Fortunately, the toy was purchased for me not too long afterwards. Oh... and my dad made it home too, like DCD said.
Facebook just told me to wish u a happy birthday so I did it.
Happy B Day Whirly! hope you have a blast!!!!!!!!
Desroc2, you look... different.
I just read that post title again and realized JPX thinks Whirlygirl might someday cripple the East Coast. Which is weird because I've thought that too.
Whirlygirl is fun,
talented, smart & perky
hey, Happy Birthday!
The blizzard of '78 was a fun time for me as well. A magical time to be a kid indeed. An even better time to be the only kid in your area with a toboggan. We would pile as many as we could on that beast and tear down the hill at break neck speed. Good times :)
Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I love the haikus. As for haiku hump day results, I'm still deciding on a winner.
[JPX using Whirly's Blog account] Whirly and I were in Panera recently and that old man in the background had us giggling. I wanted to snap a picture of him but I didn't know how to do so without being obvious. The solution was to have Whirly pretend that I was taking a picture of her, hence her marginalized position in the photo.
Happy Birthday! And, amazing stories/photos.
I remember the Blizzard of 78. I was home sick from school. I later made a fort out of snow. The snow drifts were huge! My sister, a hospital nurse, was taken to work in a helicopter!
Whirlygirl is now three years older from the date of the original posts. Happy Birthday! How ironic I found this site when looking at Blizzard of 78 photos on Google images.
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