Blizzard of '79 (JoAnn Elam, 1979)

Footage documenting Chicago's famed "Blizzard of '79," including some early examples of parking "dibs," people digging out their cars, and postal carriers delivering mail. Shot in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood.
Original: 8mm., Color, Silent, found in Chicago Film Archives JoAnn Elam Collection (www.chicagofilmarchives.org/co...)
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[@wandafunderberg1290]

I was stranded 7 miles from home in this! Nearly froze and had a 4 year old with me. Rescue workers got me on snowmobile.

[@MrMenefrego1]

I remember the infamous Blizzard of '79 very well. I was just 17 years old, my family had just returned to the Chicagoland area after two years in sunny Arizona. The very next year I bought myself a Ford, Bronco; I wasn't going to get stuck again!

[@MisterUptempo]

Yikes. Do I remember this one. The storm ended on a Sunday, and I intently kept track of the school closings. As of 5:30 Monday morning, my school hadn't been listed as closed, so I took a ride with a neighbor who was headed in my direction. The ride was incredibly slow, and because he didn't have his car radio on, I was unaware that my school announced its closing during the time I was heading there. Only when I arrived, did I learn the place was locked up tight for the day. CTA service, as I recall, was either very sparse or non-existent. I ended up having to walk all the way home again, mostly down the middle of Western Ave, from 63rd and Claremont, to 114th and Talman, with nary a bus to be had. And it was colder than Hell. I could not feel my legs by the time I got home. :) But, at least, when I have grandkids, I can say, "When I was in school, I walked 6 and a half miles through the snow!" And I wouldn't be making it up.

[@sooziesonhiem1833]

I had moved from Little Rock to Chicago early 70’’s married and had 2 children by 1979. We were a young couple with not a lot of money so my form of entertainment was going to bingo w/ a lady friend on Sunday’s .. that was a much needed break for me .. I really didn’t like driving in the snow so when the snow finally stopped Sunday morning I asked my husband if he would drive to bingo that morning, he said sure if you dig the car out , even though it was a monumental task I was bound and determined to go. We lived in an apartment and each had an assigned parking slot . I began to dig and continued digging for what seemed hours and periodically my husband would come out to see the progress I had made , I had just about finished and he came out to check once again and began to laugh hysterically, I asked why he was laughing so hard and he said he had seen on the crawl on the television screen before I had ask him to drive me that St Gall’s bingo had been cancelled.. needless to say I threw down my shovel and began chasing him all the while he was still laughing. It took a few days before I forgave him but I can laugh about it now .. it was a horrible, horrible winter .. sub zero temperatures for weeks after the snows ..

[@TheCodedtestament]

I remember the T-shirts that said "I survived the Blizzard of '79."

[@monacook1301]

I well remember this storm. My husband, daughter, and I left during the middle of it. We made it to Lexington Kentucky where it was icing horribly. We stopped at a rest area and slept in the utility truck we were traveling in. We got back on the highway and had been traveling slowly for about 20 minutes when a tractor trailer attempted to pass us on about 5 ot 6 inches of pure ice. He hit the rear center of the truck, flipped us around and his fuel tank hit my door. The shape of my body was embedded in the door. When I arrived at the hospital via a very slow moving ambulance, they ended up using paddles on me after someone from the hospital contacted my mother reporting I had passed away. My husband called her back afterward and told her they had revived me. It's been 39 years since that storm, but it's the one that I will never forget. Minus an eye, internal injuries, a broken pelvis, over 100 sutures from my nose to my hairline, and a concussion, I would never attempt it again.

[@shannonbryson1062]

Our house was burried, we dug out, went sledding off the peak of the roof and tried to make a 24" snowman. We did not run out of snow for the giant snow balls in our yard for the snowman.... I was 8. Snowmobiles, iceskating, sledding, tunneling. Snow forts....

[@jimmyb1559]

For the blizzard of ‘67 I was happy as could be because school was closed. My father hated the snow and I couldn’t understand why. During the blizzard of ‘79 I was older and had to get to work. From then on I understood my father completely.

[@ibuprofenPill]

We moved from Texas to the Chicago area in '72. After the winter of '79 we said forget the great white north and moved back to Texas, only to experience the great Texas heat wave of 1980 six months later. Talk about fire and ice!

[@danpilurs757]

I was visiting my family in Highland Park for the holidays. I moved from Chicago to Honolulu December 1969. When I got to to Chicago there was no snow on the ground. When it started snowing I kept looking out the window at some lawn furniture in the front yard. It kept snowing and snowing until the lawn furniture disappeared. I loved it because I knew I was going back to Hawaii in two weeks. I heard that all that snow stayed for the rest of the winter. I had some great stories to tell when I got home.

[@johnhunter7386]

I was 12 and I remember it well. In Kenosha, where I lived, cars were required to have a bright orange flag on their antennas for higher visibility to other drivers. We missed about a week or more of school. All the kids in the neighborhood dug tunnels, built forts and had epic snow ball fights. Good memories 🙂

[@mmfmmf332]

I remember this very well. Thank you for posting.

[@keving52002]

I remember this one, i was 10 years old, was fun me and my brothers ,think we were out of school for a week. I look like this in the month of May. By June there was still mountains of snow melting in parking lots.

[@bobbymarsh1]

I was 12 living in the Altgeld Gardens Murry Homes I remember jumping out of the second floor window into the snow. I remember ppl trying to go to work and coming back bc of the streets. I remember buses being unable to move stalled out

[@reginaldohernandez3067]

Thanks for posting this brings back many great memories !!!!

[@shawnfoxfirth9684]

I grew up in Toronto and the Blizzards of the late '70's were Epic . . . .

[@jimirwin5623]

I was there - 14 years old at the time. January 1979

[@schmitty139]

Missed this one..soaking up some rays! In sunny warm California 😎....living on Drake and Lawrence..67 was memorable

[@iamkazie9401]

I was 15 at the time and remember this storm as if it was yesterday I live on the far south east side of Chicago in Hegewisch near the Ford plant during snow removal contractors were loading snow into dump trucks and dumping the snow in the prairie along the railroad tracks which ran north/south thru town THANKS FOR SHARING!!

[@Marshall-uy2dv]

I was 9 years old and remember it!Ilived in Hegwisch also,I remember snow drifts up to the roof,snow piled up at the end of the street that made mountians!Lived on manistee street!I got hit by a big Buick station wagon trying to cross 130th by Joe and Carries,curled up like a roley poley when I was hit and just tumbled lol!It was a fun place to grow up though,hanging out at Mann Park going to Reliance 5 and dime bummin around down by the tar pits by the calumet river Bird&Son!The stuff me and my brother did it's a wonder we're still alive LOL! I also remember the church on 130th down by man park across the street from it that had the windows boarded up after they ended up on the news for putting people on a wheel and spinning the devil out of them LOL! It was a great time to grow up, fun times!

[@iamkazie9401]

@@Marshall-uy2dv we also would wait for a car to drive by then run behind it and crouch down and grab on to the old steel bumpers and go SKITCHING holding on for as long as we could as the car drove on GREAT TIMES!!

[@YourAnjl]

I was in Oak Park when this blizzard hit. Good to see it again from my new, warm Southern home.

[@shannonbryson1062]

Us kids were oblivious to the dangers and hardship of others. Ignorance is bliss.

[@reginaldohernandez3067]

I was 15yrs old my best friend had to stay with us for a week we made money shoveling cars out of their parking space at that age your superman weather doesnt matter Today hate the winter !!!!!

[@marievorter1690]

I remember that day got me a shovel and got payed I made 243 dollars and the people would bring me hot chocolate. I when to shovel Mr fox brothers house the gave 50 dollars and about six pony shots of crown Royal to keep me warm. The good days 1979-1967 snow. Here it's,2021 2-9 and it's snowing.

[@caturdaynite7217]

I was 16 at the time. Living around 183rd and Crawford. Made $150 shoveling. Arms felt like wet noodles. Bought weed and Hard rock albums. I think I went to Pizza Hut too, back when PH was good. Good times.

[@jonnydanger7181]

I delivered the Chicago tribune by foot in that snowstorm.

[@boataxe4605]

A lesson to all future mayors, if the snow doesn’t get plowed your Byrne’ed.

[@chuckwagon5518]

This was the snowstorm that got Jane Byrne elected. I missed this storm because I was in the military, but I was there for the bigger one in 1967.

[@sosumi_rogue]

Everyone knows the meaning of a broken kitchen chair and a ratty broom. You didn't DARE move it and take someone's parking spot. I remember that year. It was the one and only time we got snow days.

[@bkkorner]

I remember it too. The drifts were 7 feet high. It looked like an arctic ghost town.

[@altfactor]

Today, JoAnn Elam would have likely shot this footage on an I-phone and would have E-Mailed the footage to Chicago TV stations WBBM, WFLD, WGN, WLS, and WMAQ for possible inclusion on their local newscasts.

[@philchigges2955]

Remember this day living in Northern lake co.we couldn't open the screen door to get out.drifts were so high we rode sleds off roof.i was 14 year old.

[@philchigges2955]

My grandma ran dons grille on western Ave then.its still there today.their using dons name but never met him or my grandma.

[@CarmenGarcia-bu3so]

I remembered this one.

[@asimov-to9xe]

I lived in Waukegan at the time and the snow was over the tops of the cars in the parking lot of the apartment complex where I lived. By next summer I was in Arkansas for the heat wave of 1980, one of the worst in history. I recall the bank thermometer displaying 114 degrees.

[@sueharper3331]

asimov72455 we were in Harrisburg, Ar visiting family & was heading home to Zion, north of Waukegan . the roads were closed down 15 minutes after we arrived home. Zion got more snow that Chicago!

[@pawsnclaws2115]

The snow storm that ending a Chicago Mayor career

[@derekschneider8922]

Invention of “snowblower” was yet to exist in 1979... when the snow blower was invented, kids who had been paid to shovel, were now seeing others with modern technology. The good ol days?

[@iliad21]

I was at GLAKES in Waukegan. The whole base shut down. I was 19 years old at the time. 😉

[@CarmenGarcia-bu3so]

My brother came from p rico first time . We couldn't pick him up from the airport, and somebody dropped him 4 to 5 block from house, he had to walked without luggage and coat. He was crying bc he was real cold and he suffered. Pobrecito😢 I was 18 years

[@derekschneider8922]

The chairs were to reserve parking places....

[@spuzzlightyeartoo]

Not to put a fine point on it, but that is a lot of snow.