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I have lived in La Grange Park for 30+ years in the same house. It is one of the best decisions I ever made. Raised my kids here, a great place to be.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Blizzard of 2011

It is now 1:20 in the afternoon on February 1, 2011 - it looks like the weather forecast is correct though times differ as to when the big snow will begin.

I talked with my stepson in Tulsa OK this morning and he said they have 20 inches of snow on the ground, 4 - 5 foot drfits.  The fire trucks have chains on their tires and they are still having a hard time getting around.  Schools of course are closed as well as all highways.

There is talk of our surpassing the all-time record set on January 26 and 27, 1967 when we got 23" of snow.  I was a senior in high school, so we thought it was a total lark. I rode to school every day with my friends Kate Levan, Judi Hoffmeyer and Carolyn Salman in Kate's 1966 loden green Mustang convertible - white rag top. We laughed and carried on every morning and generally had a fun time just going to school.

It started to snow about 2:00 in the afternoon on the 26th. Miraculously, Maine West closed early so the staff and students could get home, as the snow was really coming down. We were ecstatic that we actually got out of school early. The Maine Township schools had a reputation of NEVER closing.

Somehow, we piled 7 or 8 kids in the car for the journey home. We all lived about a mile away from school; Salman was the closest, so she got dropped off first.  On top of it being the worst snowstorm ever, we managed to make the driving even more hazardous. It took us 4 hours to get to my house - I was about a mile and a half away from school. When I got out of the car, I am sure my folks were thanking their lucky stars - they must have been on pins and needles till I arrived home. My brothers are both younger and would have been at the elementary school, again about a mile walk away. My mom didn't drive, so I suppose they walked home, probably having a ball.

Four of the kids in the car ended up going home with Kate, as it was impossible to go any further. They stayed there for SEVEN days. I don't know where the Levans got that much food for the group, as all of the stores' shelves were bare. No delivery trucks could get through, so there was no milk and no bread. Kate lived in a big house on the Des Plaines River across from East River Road. When the snow stopped, I walked over to visit the menagerie of friends and we saw a horse-drawn sleigh riding along the road.

And it was so quiet! No car noise, no truck noise, just the muffled sounds of the snowstorm. It was glorious.

And now it is 2:30 and the snow is definitely getting thicker and it is very windy.

Just for the heck of it, here is a listing of Chicago's 10 biggest Snowstorms:



23.0 inches Jan 26-27, 1967
21.6 inches Jan 1-3, 1999
19.2 inches Mar 25-26, 1930
18.8 inches Jan 13-14, 1979
16.2 inches Mar 7-8, 1931
15.0 inches Dec 17-20, 1929
14.9 inches Jan 30, 1939
14.9 inches Jan 6-7, 1918
14.3 inches Mar 25-26, 1970
14.0 inches Jan 18-20, 1886

Update tonight or tomorrow.

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