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In light of the wintry weather apparently on its way today, I got started thinking about this. Those of you who've been in the area awhile will surely recall the all-time record single snowfall event here in central North Carolina thirteen years ago, on January 24-25, 2000. The official total at RDU was 20.3 inches, but naturally there was considerable variation, and I was measuring just slightly under 22 inches in open, non-drifting areas on my street in Raleigh. I had literally been in town only a couple of weeks at the time, having arrived just after the new millennium began, and still was here only temporarily, not permanently, and didn't really know anyone or anything about the area. Coming originally from the great frozen North, when I woke up that morning (I believe it was a Tuesday morning) and saw all that snow, it didn't really seem like that big a deal. I figured I'd just dig the car out and go to work. Having just moved, though, I didn't have a whole lot of belongings, and certainly didn't have a snow shovel with me, so I went to borrow one. I started ringing my neighbors' doorbells asking to borrow a snow shovel, and was surprised to receive nothing but puzzled looks and shoulder-shrugs. So, I decided I'd better call my boss (I was new at the job, too, of course) to let him know that I'd probably be pretty late, and apologize for the inconvenience. I was surprised again when the phone just rang and rang and rang with no answer. It was only gradually over the course of that morning that I realized the folly of me attempting to shovel my car out of its spot, since even if I could have, all the other roads and highways within fifty miles were essentially impassable, and would be for some time. And even if I could somehow have driven out, or walked or caught a bus, it would have been academic anyway, since not only was my workplace closed up, so was virtually every other business or other non-essential facility or destination of any kind. So, at long last, I learned to approach the blizzard the North Carolina way, which is to chill out and enjoy it, and so I spent the next few days traipsing around in the snow, sledding, throwing snowballs, and just having a great time.
Does anybody else have any interesting or fun or funny stories from then to share?
I remember it well. I was living in Jamestown at the time and was still married. There was over two feet of snow on the ground. I remember having to drive her to work in Greensboro, then continuing on to my job in Burlington. Later that day I had to then go back and pick her up. We looked for somewhere to go for dinner, and I remember that the ONLY place open was a single Bojangles in Greensboro. The place was packed!
Not sure if I have anything that's funny, but after all the shoveling I did, I injured my sciatic nerve and was in massive pain for weeks after. To this day it still flares up. My dog loved it (RIP, old buddy!):
i was living in an apartment just off six forks (near where sawmill/morning dove cross) . my friend surprised me by walking to my apartment from her townhouse located at bent creek townhomes (near lynn & six forks). we dug out my car & decided to take a ride over to the apartment of the guy that i was gaga over at the time. he worked at a radio station & his boss had come to get him in a 4x4 vehicle earlier that morning so that he could be at work. my friend & i were to go over to dig out his car & drive it back over to her townhouse where we all decided to rendezvous later.
i used his hidden key to get into the apartment & get his extra set of car keys. thinking that we were being efficient, we started the car to warm & defrost while we dug it out of the snow. turns out the doors lock automatically so the vehicle was running with the car keys in the ignition & the doors locked tight. oops. i remember standing in the parking lot of his apartment complex talking on my (so fab in 2000) chunky cell phone, telling him out i locked his car keys in the car with it running. we had to call AAA & have him explain over the phone to the AAA guy that he owned the vehicle & was authorizing us to drive it elsewhere. it took some convincing for the AAA guy to do it, which included him being told very specific oddities about the vehicle's interiior, exterior, & the apartment itself. eventually he did jimmy the car & give us the keys. by then most of the now was gone from around the car so we drove off with little incident.
We moved here in 1994 and having experienced the affect of winter weather in NC my only thought was to laugh and think we may not get out until March. Had a lot of fun acting like a kid again for a few days.
We had left for a ski trip in WVa. At breakfast that morning, I thought I heard the guy on TV saying Raleigh had almost two feet of snow. I started laughing, saying he must have meant 2 inches! We were lucky to have a path through our neighborhood when we got back, and just barely were able to get off the road into the driveway.
I lived in Stonehenge apartments. I remember going to bed and there was little mention of any snow on the news. They really blew it.
Around midday I had had enough of tv and ventured out on foot. To my amazement Crowley's was open. It was packed all day.
I remember going to bed and there was little mention of any snow on the news. They really blew it.
This was the big deal - that they called for a few inches at most (that was on the morning when it was already snowing). Then it just kept coming and coming and coming. Nobody had a clue. Blew it barely begins to describe it!
After a couple of days of being stuck in the house, hubby and I decided to walk to one of the grocery stores nearby (maybe l/2 mile).
Kroger at corner of Strickland and Creedmoor was open. No meat but we stocked up on snacks! Walking home with bags of groceries was NOT FUN (this is for those of you that always want to be close enough to walk to your grocery store)! Carrying 2 liter bottles of Diet Dew was not a good plan!
A car stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride. We hopped in since he was going right past our n'hood. When we got out, my teenagers were outside in the yard and were sooooo upset that their dad and I had "hitchiked" and was in the car with strangers!!! I'll never forget the expression on their face! They still remind us, to this day, that we should never get in the car with strangers!!!
I was in NY at the time but I remember that storm. It had been sooooo cold the week before, we even had our pipes freeze.
There is a picture of my house on the wakegov website taken in Feb. 2000 and there is still snow on the ground.
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