December 24th, 2009 
joel Editor’s note: I was in the checkout line at Tops Tuesday and the cashier and the fellow in front of me were reminiscing about what they were doing on Christmas Eve…not last year or even recently, but in 1983, the year the Christmas blizzard came to town.
That’s how indelible that particular Christmas is in the memories of the people of Erie. So I bring you my classic remembrance, original posted on my Radio Free JoJo blog in 2007.
WJET 1400 Stereo
During Tom Atkins weather forecast last night on Jet TV, he had a trivia question about which Christmas had 20″ of snow and wind chills of 40-50 below. “Of course,” I told my wife, “it was the Christmas of 1983.”
That year I was two months into a very part time job working as an air personality at WJET 1400 AM in Erie. My assignment for Christmas was to play the tapes of the full-time jocks playing their favorite Christmas songs throughout the early morning. The forecast for Christmas was dire, even for those days. Basically, a blizzard was in store. I was without wheels back then, being a lowly college student, and my father didn’t want me driving the only family car to inevitably get stuck. So we made a plan that my dad would drive me to the station during Christmas Eve before the storm hit, and I would stay there overnight and take a cab home the next day.
So there I was, sleeping on the floor of our Program Director Ken Tyler’s office on Christmas morning. I was awakened about 5:30 AM by Mark Priscaro, who was finishing up the overnight shift, and I was going to be on through the morning to play the tapes.
The airshift went on without a hitch. I remember several of the jocks playing 
“Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” as that was the big novelty song that year. Meanwhile, outside the Erie area was getting crushed by an historical snowfall for Christmas. Somehow, the fellow who was to relieve me made it to the station (I think he had a big ‘ol 4-wheeler), and I had arranged for a cab to take me home.
The taxi pulled up on time, and as I enter I find the driver dressed in a Santa suit, with his cab’s interior decorated with ornaments and lights. It is the most memorable taxi ride of my life. He drove his cab as if it was Santa’s sleigh, bounding through the snow on Erie’s Ash Street, north to 12th. He really didn’t turn left onto 12th but more like whipped the cab’s rear end around with a jerk to be facing west. We plowed snow and he did the same maneuver to turn left onto Sassafras and continued south to my block on 18th. People that know Erie will recognize that he took the long way to 18th & Sass. but on that day, he went the only way he could considering the snow. I paid my fare and gave him a big tip. He dropped me at the corner and with a hardy “Merry Christmas,” he went on his way.
I walked the half-block to my house, glad to be home even as the whole city was shut down. I thought to myself that I’d always remember where I was on the Christmas of 1983.
Now from my laptop to yours…Merry Christmas!
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Very cool story from the days when people actually had to cover all shifts on the radio, no matter what the weather was. When at WQLN, I would stay at my parents’ house in Waterford if I knew bad weather was coming the next day when I had to work so that I wouldn’t have to drive over an hour from my home in Cochranton (white knuckles & all) during a blizzard. The ‘89 Grand Marquis was a great car to get through rough weather. Merry Christmas to ALL!!!!
I remember that Christmas. We lived in one of the houses behind College Park apts in Edinboro, and had to ride across town to the home friends of our parents for Christmas dinner. We literally got stuck in the middle of 6N as it hadn’t been plowed recently, and had to get out and push. That was also the Christmas I got my new bike, and was so upset that I couldn’t take it out and ride it around.
I remember drivng back into Erie from NC where I was stationed with the USAF at the time. The temperature was dropping like a rock and the winds picked up. Church services all over the place got cancelled….I think even St. Peter’s was off. By morning it was a winter wonderland. Of course it took a couple of days to get back to normal, but that’s Erie.
Big Guy, I, too, remember that storm! Since I was the low man on the totem pole at WSEE, I had to work the day shift in the taperoom. WSEE did not have weekend news at the time (sounds familar, eh?), and we had a local block of cartoons and movies until network programming at 8pm. I made it into work fine, but leaving at 6pm was another challenge. I made it okay to 7th & Cascade in the 1973 Ford Econoline van my dad had purchased for me to drive (for those in the know, this was the infamous “Sex Machine”, a name that was about as ironic as a nickname could be!), but there was no way that I would be able to park it on the street, since about 36″ of snow had fallen since I had gone to work at 10am and no plows had been through. I proceeded to the St. Andrew’s parking lot a block away, parked it as best I could and walked home. (My brothers-in-law and I shovelled it out about a week later!) I didn’t have to work Christmas Day, but I do remember taking about 45 minutes to make it from 7th & Raspberry to 1220 Peach Street on December 26th in my mom’s Ford Granada. Gotta love a rear-wheel drive American car from the late-70’s making it through unplowed Erie streets!
The Grand Marquis was also rear wheel drive & quite a plow too.
Joel:
I had just finished the 6Am to Noon news shift at WJET. Fritz Snyder arrived and I planned on driving home to Jeannette for the holidays that Christmas Eve. I had just finished an interview with Mayor Lou Tullio who basically shut down the city. After the tape stopped rolling he asked me what my plans were for the holiday. I said I was about to drive home. He said “you will not, the city is shut down, you come over my house for dinner.” I thanked him politely and said “Mayor, I am not missing a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner because of a little snow.” He laughed. It took me two hours to get to the Mercer County line. I pulled off at the deer creek township rest stop and phoned in a report for Fritz. It looked like someone had dropped a bomb on the lakeshore, dark and blackened skies. But it was sunny and smooth driving from Mercer southbound. Typical lake effect storm.
TV,
As long as we are remembering when; were you still at radio the night of the Albion Tornado (‘85), or were you at TV? I was at WDOE/Dunkirk that night manning the EBS and I’m trying to remember who did a live phoner with me from 18th and Ash about the tornado. Hard to believe that will be 25 years this May 31st.
I was at TV. Bob Neely and I drove up on Cranesville only to see it raining down attic insulation from when the tornado actually hit. Many of the news crews were pressed into EMS duties, holding IVs for rescue crews while photogs rolled.