Friday, January 22, 2016

When the Megalopolitan Blizzard hit the East Village (and NYC) in February 1983

Not sure if you heard this, but it might snow this weekend.

Anyway! Seems like a good time to share these photos via EVG Facebook friend Raphael Lasar ... a few shots via a Canon AE1 from the Blizzard of 1983 (the Megalopolitan Blizzard), which produced some 22 inches of snow on Feb. 11-12 ..


[1st Avenue near 5th Street]


[1st Avenue looking north toward 6th Street]


[1st Avenue at Sixth Street]


[1st Avenue at East 3rd Street]


[2nd Avenue between East 6th and East 7th streets]


[Astor Place]


[Astor Place]


[Astor Place and the Alamo]


[St. Mark's Place between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue]

He moved from Bleecker Street to East Fifth Street near Second Avenue in 1965 at age 5 ... and relocated in 1976 to Village View, where his mother still lives.

I asked Lasar if he had any particular memories from this time.

"I could go on at length about a recent college graduate, his ambitions and his new Canon AE1, but I think your readers are more interested in their own memories and musings of the neighborhood," he said. "I can only say what a privilege it was to grow up in such a place at the time I did."

15 comments:

Walter said...

Over the last 5 years, I've lived through about 3 storms of the century. Or maybe it was 3 years and 5 storms of the century... Am I a survivor or what?

Jonathan said...

Here's one of mine from 1996:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/leolondon/2115365436/in/album-1991/

Anonymous said...

That view of the Kiev on second ave ... Can't you just smell the challah!

Anonymous said...

@6:57,

Yes, and I can still remember the taste of the mushroom barley soup.

Anonymous said...

I love seeing these photos and what the neighborhood looked like in the 1980s. I was a junior in high school in 1983, itching to move to NYC. I finally got here in 1990!

Raphael Lasar said...

We had lunch at the Kiev on April 3, 1994, Easter Day, about 13 hours before my wife gave birth to our daughter. And yes, she had the mushroom barley soup with challah.

IzF said...

Anytime I here about the Kiev my heart jumps and sinks at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Dear Raphael,

It's entirely possible your daughter also, in a way, had the mushroom barley soup and challah.

Hope all of you are healthy and well. Thanks for sharing such a great memory.

Anonymous said...

1983 was my second or third winter in New York, I recall this storm but it was not a big deal since 5 years earlier my hometown in New England had 54" of snow. Oh those days before weather satellites...

Dan C. said...

I was a senior in HS. I believe I spent the day with friends taking pix in the drifts, then I dragged them to the Theatre 80 for a $4 double feature of classics. (School might have been closed, but we probably cut anyway).

"... but I think your readers are more interested in their own memories and musings of the neighborhood," Nicely said!

Gojira said...

I remember this storm, it was a doozy. It took days for the plows to clear all the side streets, and I still have a vivid mental image of looking out my front window and seeing two people skiing in the middle of East 11th Street towards Avenues A.

Jim Markowich said...

As delightful for seeing some old commercial establishments as for seeing all that white stuff...

Raphael Lasar said...

Jim, finding those in my basement recently, I felt the same way. It was 1969 when I was 8 years old that my mom took me to Dry Dock to get my very own passbook savings account. I started it with about 10 bucks. I remember going to deposit money and the teller hand stamping in the transaction amount and date. What a thrill.

Trixie said...

I think that was my first blizzard after moving here from LA in 1978, and I loved it! I'm looking forward to this storm too.

Bill said...

I remember it so well. Driving into the city with a friend who had business in mid town- Sunday the 13th. We had lunch at The L & M across the street From St. Mark's Church. We parked on 3rd Ave -practically in middle of it.