Maggie's Farm

In the winter of 1963 two friends and I drove into Boston to party. We would go to Marlboro street where at the time college kids would rent walkup flats and find a party going on. About midnight it began to snow and blow so we decided to head home. I was going NW and my two friends were going North so we each had our own cars. Shortly after leaving I slid my car into a curb and broke the lower A-arm, the only thing holding the left front wheel on was the shock absorber. I parked it and began the long walk home. No layers, I had chinos, penny loafers and a cotton sports jacket. 18 miles of wind cold and snow. My feet were soaked and in fact my shoes were so wet and stretched out they were falling off if I didn't walk carefully. The snow got deeper, 6" then 8" then 10" I was more or less following Paul Reveres ride and when I got into the back country with the small roads and over hanging trees I got a little break from the wind. I can remember eating snow but still being thirsty. In fact I finally drank from a brook and had to lay in the snow to do it. I could have just stayed there I was so tired. I made it to the town I lived in just as it was getting light, about 7:30am with just a mile and a half to go I pushed on to home. It was a blizzard, high winds, low temps and about 16" of snow. I never go anywhere anymore without at least thinking about what I'm wearing and what the weather will be. I can leave my house here in the sun and drive over the mountains and be the only one in the car with a good coat and gloves. An old Air Force rule is to dress for the weather you are going to fly over.