Let it snow, let it snow

Ask anyone who has lived in South Florida for more three decades. They remember the snowfall of 1977.

"I remember that it actually snowed as far south as where Sweetbay is now located in Lake Placid," said Rob Browning, who was 8 years old at the time. "That was the first time I ever saw snow."

It happened in January.

"From my memory, and it's probably distorted by now, it was about an inch thick," Browning said.

That's about right, says Walt Belcher, now the TV columnist for the Tampa Tribune. He had just moved to the Sebring bureau - what is now Highlands Today.

"My wife and I had relocated from Las Vegas. We rented a big pink house off the Circle from an eccentric lady named Gracie. It was drafty old house that I think was being used as a campaign headquarters the last time I passed through town.

"Imagine our surprise when the car got a light dusting of snowflakes," Belcher said. He checked the Tribune archive, and found that on Jan. 19, 1977, a half-inch was recorded in the Tampa Bay area.

Browning recalls writing his name on the trunk of his parent's car. The rest of his memory is gray. He remembers getting up that morning, and one of parents shouting, "Hey, it's snowing."

It brought back memories for Marilyn McAdams of Sebring.

Recently, she found the photo of her three children, Michelle, Stacy, David, holding snowballs in their hands. She said, "I need to put this somewhere where I can find it.

"I still have a picture up on my refrigerator," McAdams said. "I just really, really can remember that night. I went nuts getting those kids up."

It was about 5 a.m., and she rousted them from bed. They went wild in the yard. McAdams called all three on Wednesday. Michelle, then about 10, remembers putting those snowballs in the freezer. There wasn't enough for a snowman.

Stacy, then about 8, has fewer memories, and David - "Gosh, he looks so tiny. He must have been 4," - recalls, little or nothing.

Some readers will confuse the snow of 1977 with the ice storm of 1989, which left icicles hanging from oranges and grapefruit. Gainesville reported an overnight low of 22 degrees; in Miami it was 37.

"I was a mailman working at the Avon Park post office," said Leon Watson. "It stayed on the ground till around 2 p.m., if I remember correctly. All the retired carriers from up north always say that you didn't have to deliver in the snow. And I reply, 'Yes, I did.'"

Today, Kevin Marsh is 49, but the 1977 storm is still the only time he's ever seen snow.

"I've never lived north in the winter," said Marsh, who lives in Wauchula.

"We found out by the Hardee Hotline," he laughed. "Everybody got on the phone. They all got woke up early by their neighbors."

By daylight, the three Johnson children were out on the lawns, mouths open like baby birds, catching snowflakes on their tongues.

"Being 11 at the time and never having seen snow, it was amazing," she said. "That was the only snow I witnessed until I was 18. To me it was so cool."

"I think there was enough on the car for a 6-inch snowman," said Marsh, who is now a courier for Florida Hospital.

Forum readers responded:

Keeping warm around the pipe stove

I was four years old and was at my Grandparents' house in Frostproof. My Pawpaw (Grampa) went out to his little yellow Datsun truck and scraped enough snow off the top to make a snowball. He brought it inside and put it in the freezer, but it didn't last. I remember sitting around their pipe stove keeping warm. - Dmommy

I went a bit nutty

I remember it vividly! Me and my parents were here on vacation. I remember being outside and seeing the snow fall, watching it in the street light, screaming that it was snowing!

My parents and great grandparents thought I went a bit nutty at first, screaming and carrying on, so they went outside to make me keep it down, so I did not disturb the entire block... then they saw I was not nuts at all!

Dad and I played in it as best as we could... it was not like the NJ snow we were used to, but it was enough to make some snow balls and chase each other around... lol

It was awesome and every year since we moved here I pray for snow, even just a tiny bit, so my daughter can see it fall. - daisy22loca