The Blizzard of '78

 Last I heard, they were no longer predicting rain for Northern Michigan, just heavy snow and lots of wind.  We are all hunkered down here in Beaglesonia.  We did our grocery shopping early and I topped off the gas tank on the pick-up today.  We have no travel plans until Sunday, when we are supposed go to my granddaughter's in Petoskey for Christmas.  Even that may be cancelled if the storm has not blown over by then.  The NWS has issued a blizzard warning for our area, set to expire at 7:00 PM Saturday, but you know how that goes.  Although we commonly get snowstorms here, true blizzards are rare.  Our TV weatherman said that the most severe one he remembers is the Blizzard of '78.  He was just a kid back then, but I was somewhat older. 

I was working at the paper mill in Cheboygan and drove drunk in that storm 20 miles to our home in Indian River.  I didn't watch much TV in those days, and I didn't know that a blizzard was predicted.  When we got off the second shift at 11:00 PM, it looked like Main Street hadn't been plowed yet, so somebody suggested that we hang out at Deed's Bar for an hour or so, by which time it was assumed that the plows would be out.  When the road didn't look any better by 2:30 AM, which is the legally mandated closing time for bars in Michigan, Deed offered to let us crash on or under the pool tables, but I don't think any of us did.  Although there was no evidence that the road had been plowed, I figured that I could just follow the tire tracks of those who went before me.

A few miles out of town, there were no more tire tracks that I could see, so I kept between the ditches by centering my path with the aid of fences and utility poles.  For some reason, I was driving my wife's little Chevy Chevette instead of my 4WD pickup, so I had to keep my speed up in order to bust through the drifts, which frequently brought snow up over the hood, obstructing my vision for a few seconds.  I wasn't worried about hitting anybody because there was absolutely no traffic on that road, even though it was a state highway.  My main goal was to maintain my forward momentum and stay as close to the center as possible, which I did all the way to my own driveway.  I even managed to turn the car around and back into the garage, with only a slight bump into the back wall to mar an otherwise perfect performance of survival driving.  It is said that God protects the fools and the drunks, so I'm sure He had me covered that night.