In 1978 I lived in Delmar and worked at NCR
Corporation in Millsboro. I also owned a
Triumph Spitfire. NCR decided to send me
on a business trip to Philadelphia on February 3rd. Since the Spitfire was not in the mechanic
shop, for a change, I decided to drive it to Philadelphia. On Thursday, February 2nd it
started to snow. By 7PM the snow was up
to the bumper on the Spitfire (Okay that wasn’t that high maybe 5 inches) and didn’t show signs of letting up. I switched plans and decided to take the Greyhound
bus to Philadelphia. I got on the last
bus leaving Salisbury about 9AM. The
driver was in a panic saying he hoped the company cancelled the bus trip.
It was still Blizzard conditions when we left
Salisbury and it just got worst on the way north. The bus driver kept yelling out “ I can’t see
the road”, instilling confidence in everyone on the bus. A couple bus drivers who were on the bus
returning to Philadelphia came and stood by his driver seat to look for the
road and give him directions.
We got as far as Odessa and the road was blocked
with stalled cars in snow drifts. The
bus came to a stop and there we were, not stuck in a snow drift, but just couldn’t
get around the cars in the middle of Rt13.
Still it wasn’t bad the bus was warm and seat was comfortable, if I had to
spent the night it wasn’t bad.
Out comes the Odessa volunteer Fire Company. They beat a trail through the snow to the
stalled cars and our bus. They then made the people in the stalled cars load onto the
bus and the bus had to follow the firemen back to the fire department.
So I spent Thursday night on a steel folding chair
in the fire department. Now if you read
newspaper accounts of this they will say the fire department feed us roast beef
sandwiches, I remember getting a cheese sandwich and coffee. I would have preferred to have been on the
bus but the driver had locked it and turned off the engine.
About 10 AM the next day, Friday, the roads had
been cleared and we continued on to Philadelphia. It turned out to be a waste of time as
Philadelphia had shut down due to the snow.
I came back on Saturday and shoveled snow in Delmar all weekend. I think we had about 14 to 18 inches of snow
but there was a lot of drifting.
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