Share Your Blizzard of '78 Memories

I was just 6 years old when the Blizzard of '78 hit Rhode Island — old enough to know that it was a big storm, but too young to understand the true impact of it.

At the time, I was living in a house on Hillside Avenue in Johnston, at the bottom of a hill near the Manton Avenue Bridge — which meant that all the snow blew down toward my house, burying the front door.

Luckily, it was a two-story house, so we could climb out the upstairs window to get out — and get a view of the huge snowfall.

Once the storm was over, we dug out from the door, leaving a snow tunnel to the driveway that — in my six-year-old memory, anyway — didn't seem to melt away until Memorial Day.

And ever since — like nearly every Rhode Islander alive at the time — I compare every new storm to the '78 blizzard that dumped five feet in some places and piled up 27-ft. drifts in other areas.

"This one may be bad," I'd say in the properly flinty Rhode Island tone, "but nothing like the Blizzard of '78."

It's somehow fitting, then, that we're watching what may be a significant snowfall approaching the area, though with far more developed technology — and a more finely honed, if potentially overplayed, sense of urgency on the part of forecasters. [A somewhat laissez-faire attitude from meteorologists ahead of the '78 storm has been blamed for giving people a false sense of security back then.]

So, even as we look ahead to a possible storm — nothing like the Blizzard of '78, mind you — it's a good time to take a look back 35 years.

Share your memories of the Blizzard of '78.

What do you remember from the biggest snowstorm to hit Rhode Island in a generation?

Was it how the state came to a complete stop — or how Gov. Garrahy appeared on TV in his now-famous flannel shirt to reassure Rhode Islanders?

Take a stroll down Memory Lane in the comments section below — and use the "Upload Photos and Video" button to post your pics and clips.