CLEVELAND, Ohio — If you were alive in Northeast Ohio during the 1970s, chances are you remember just where you were during the Blizzard of 1978.
It hit nearly 40 years ago, paralyzing the state for three days. It shut down the Ohio Turnpike for the first time in history.
Our meteorologist Scott Sabol can recall just what he was doing, even though he was only four years old at the time.
He was with his family — in his dad’s 1977 Buick — on their way from Hudson to Fairview General Hospital; his mother was in labor.
“My mom was getting ready to give birth to my sister. So we’re driving on the turnpike right before the blizzard…this was before the turnpike shut down,” he said.
He said the snow was unlike anything he’d ever seen.
“The winds were unbearable,” he said.
But that wasn’t the biggest highlight of his story.
His dad put him in charge of keeping track of the family’s turnpike toll ticket. Oops!
“This was a big ticket compared to the little ones now,” he said. “We get to the exit, and I’m supposed to give my dad the ticket.”
But, Scott said, he’d been goofing around and slid the ticket down into the door. So his dad had to pay the full toll from gate to gate as a penalty.
“My dad wasn’t too happy but at least we got to the hospital in time before the blizzard hit,” he said.
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