Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blizzard of 1978

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All Images © 2007 by Robert E Pence

The next morning my bedroom was strangely dim; snow plastered against the storm windows and screens above the
porch roof had blocked much of the light. When I went downstairs, around the bottom of the front door I saw a small
snowdrift. I'd lived there six years at that time, and thought I had the place pretty well weatherstripped.

I worked at the GE Wire Mill on Taylor Street, less than a mile away as the crow flies. I didn't hear any
announcements about the plant being closed, so I dressed as I normally would for an exceptionally cold, windy day,
with my big Eddie Bauer down-filled parka with a fur-lined hood. I added a ski mask and goggles because of the
blowing snow, pulled on my warmest gloves, and away I went.

As I crossed Washington Boulevard by the Swinney Mansion, the only moving car I'd seen pulled up. The driver
asked if I wanted a ride and I declined, realizing that I'd feel obligated to push if when he got stuck. I found my way
across Swinney Park mainly because I was familiar with the terrain and every tree. Eventually I crossed Jefferson
and came to the railroad, which was swept almost clear by the wind. I crossed the railroad bridge over the St. Marys
River, and saw that the snow had drifted high enough to completely cover the barbed-wire-topped chain-link fence.
That would save me a difficult, if not impossible walk along the river to Taylor Street and the front gate.

Not wanting to posthole into the deep snow, I took off my parka and spread it beneath me, and shinnied on my
stomach up one side of the drift and down the other, ending up inside the fence. The third-shift workers in the wire
mill had been shut in, and no one else was going in or out. I was the only one in the office, and I when I realized mid-
afternoon that if security found out I was in, I might have to stay. I went out the same way I came in, and returned
home.

West Washington Boulevard looking toward downtown. Normally this would be four lanes of aggressive traffic
streaming toward the camera.

Neither I nor the two households on either side of
me were prepared for the storm, pantry-wise, but
when the ten of us gathered at my house and
pooled our resources, we came up with a decent buffet
that sustained us through three days of
socializing and playing in the snow.

Thieme Drive, looking from Washington toward Wayne.

Wayne Street, looking east from Thieme.

Nelson Street, looking north across Wayne.

Looking west on Wayne Street.

Art Museum, now Castle Gallery, at Wayne & College.

Clearing snow where Garden Street ends, at the alley between Wayne & Washington. The loader operator piled
snow against the house with the gray shake siding, and when it melted it flooded the basement.

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