Remembering the Blizzard of '78

February 28th, 2013

The photo of the Blizzard of 1978 brought back many wonderful memories from that eventful week during our freshman year (“Digging Out,” Classes, January/February). Among them were playing dorm-versus-dorm football games on the Pembroke Green; pulling sleds loaded with food and supplies down Thayer Street to the Ratty from the field behind Meehan Auditorium; stealing trays from the Ratty to use as sleds; making ski jumps out of the snow-drifted cars lining the steep streets on College Hill; participating in a chess tournament in Metcalf Hall that ended abruptly when a spectator (me) spilled a bowl of steaming hot popcorn on the board during a tense moment in the championship match, causing everyone to jump and the chess pieces to scatter all over the room; attending nightly keg parties until we ran out of money and enthusiasm; and taking quiet walks in the evening on frozen empty streets under a canopy of snow-laden trees. As I recall, we had just finished first semester exams (which were taken after winter break in those days), so we did not yet have a lot of reading and other assignments for second semester classes, making for a truly magical time.

Arlie Nogay ’81
Sewickley, Pa.
arlie.nogay@gmail.com

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March/April 2013