Down Sussex Lane … Remembering one heck of a snowstorm By JIM SMART Special to the Blade-News
Writing this column has been very rewarding, netting responses from many of you who have shared your Belair at Bowie memories with "Down Sussex Lane …" One of the first e-mail responses came from Karl Lensler on Croydon Lane in Chapel Forge. Turns out Karl and his family and I were neighbors when I was growing up on Chesney Lane one block away a lifetime ago. Karl reminded me of something I had long since forgotten - the Blizzard of Jan. 30-31, 1966.
"Christmas 1965 arrived with temperatures in the '70s; however, this unusually warm weather was really the 'calm before the storm …' We did not realize Jan. 30 would bring lots of snow and wind," Karl told us. "There was no snowfall in the month of December, so we expected the same kind of weather for January," he added. Christmas Day 1965 was not only unusually mild; it was perfect weather for a 9-year-old with a new Sears bicycle fresh from Santa Claus' satellite work shop at Parole Plaza over in Annapolis. Weather that day was so out of character for Maryland in late December. It was mild like a spring day. Late that day, we had an unexpected December thunderstorm, which rattled the windows for a time, along with heavy rain and small hail.
Karl remembers mild weather right through most of January. I remember it too. We played outside like it was springtime in light clothing, enjoying an unusual slice of mild Maryland weather in the dead of winter. Mother Nature ultimately had other plans for us, however. "On Saturday, Jan. 30, it started snowing at one o'clock in the afternoon," Karl comments. "We were at Capital Plaza. Looking at my watch, I warned my wife we needed to get home before the streets became too slippery. On the way home on (Route) 450, snowfall became heavier, making the scenery white and beautiful while the streets became dangerous. It snowed the rest of the day and well into the night. Overnight, a very cold north wind began to blow. We could not forget the howling wind and the noise it made against our windows. The storm quickly turned into a blizzard," Karl added.
By the next morning, no one was going anywhere. There was three feet of drifting snow on the ground and not even snowplows could get through it. Karl remembers snowdrifts as high as 10 feet in places. It was frozen solid in others. Most won't remember this, but Karl does, "The blizzard made visibility difficult causing some serious disasters - a fire at the Bowie Racetrack stables and one death on the Capital Beltway where a 13-year-old girl died from exposure in a stalled car." Karl adds Bowie firefighters could not get to the fire due to deep blowing snow, causing the stables to burn to the ground.
I remember the Blizzard of '66 because my father couldn't get our Valiant in the driveway. He backed that old black sedan with pizza cutter tires up Chesney Lane and gave it a running start to get in the driveway. The car wound up diagonally at the bottom of our driveway, stuck until my father could shovel it out. He wouldn't be going anywhere for several days nor would anyone else. The entire Washington-Baltimore area, including all airports, was shut down until crews could get roads and runways clear.
Karl remembers the absence of snowplows on Bowie's roads, leaving most of us snowbound, "Most people were without milk, bread, and other kinds of sustenance. Some people got desperate. They soon improvised a way to get to the stores. They drove across back yards because there were no fences then. Most neighbors did not want to use other people's back yards to venture out to the store. They were afraid of getting stuck. As the ground began to thaw and turn into mud, it became quite a mess."
Karl remembers his own struggles, least of which was getting to the store. He describes his biggest problem, "On Tuesday following the storm, I had begun the task of shoveling snow to clear our driveway. Then, I took a look at my garage roof and my heart almost stopped. There was three to four feet of snow piled high on my garage roof. I had to get up on the roof and shovel as much snow as possible to prevent the roof from caving in. Later, when I opened the side door, a 10-foot snowdrift blocked my exit with a door imprint in the snow." The Washington-Baltimore area didn't even begin to get back to normal until Wednesday when most of the area was back on the road. School was out for a solid week while crews cleared the roads and waited for the big thaw.
So how bad was the Blizzard of '66 really? Was it the subject of folklore and "boy you think you've had it rough …" fish stories, or was it the dangerous storm everyone talks about 42 years later? Here's what the U.S. Weather Bureau (National Weather Service) had to say about that storm, "Jan. 30-31, 1966: A blizzard struck Maryland and the Northeast U.S. It began following morning lows of subzero in some portions of the state. Temperatures remained in the single digits as the wind and snow increased. Gusts of 50 to 60 mph caused whiteout conditions over portions of Western Maryland and into the Baltimore and Washington areas."
Snowfall amounts from the Blizzard of '66 ranged from 12 inches in Baltimore to as high as 25 inches in Easton on the Eastern Shore. Regardless of where snow fell, drifts were deep, rising more than half way up our patio door. This storm crippled transportation and caused food shortages for two to three days according to the National Weather Service.
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I'd like to hear your classic Belair at Bowie stories and see your snapshots from a bygone era for both this column and a Belair at Bowie Web site currently under construction. Do you have Belair memories you'd like to share? E-mail me at downsussexlane@yahoo.com or via mail at Down Sussex Lane c/o Jim Smart, 38264 Wakefield Place, Palmdale CA 93551. We cannot guarantee they will all be published, however, we will do our best.
