So...a blizzard is coming, and the first thing people do is

[trof]

stock up on movies.
If you're old enough to remember, what did you do in the olden times before VCRs and DVDs?
Cable even?
TeeVee even?
We didn't have blizzards in 'Bama, so I haven't a clue.
The tornados came without warning, there was no shoveling involved, and you could go back outside in about 7 minutes.
:shrug:

[phaseolus]

1. Well, I was a kid, so I didn't do anything special

...but I remember reading all the amusing stories of baby boomlets 40 weeks after big snowstorms.

Dad was a land surveyor who got plenty of days off in winter due to snow or extreme cold. He used the time to catch up on home repair chores.

[Kahuna]

2. You could watch good old movies on network television.

Those days are gone.

[david_vincent]

5. That's one of my pet peeves

When I was a kid, local stations like WHEN used to show all sorts of old movies. All of my early movie knowledge came to me via broadcast TV - WHEN used to show all of the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller, for instance, and a whole lot of old horror movies like Karloff's Frankenstein and other such classics. Once, a local station made a special project, completely unadvertised, of showing every movie Ginger Rogers ever made, every night after the late news, until they'd gone through the whole bunch.
These days it's a rarity to find an old movie on cable stations, let alone those few channels that still broadcast.
It's impossible for me to believe that any 11 year old boy would rather watch a disaster like The Nutty Professor than a Weissmuller Tarzan flick.

[nuxvomica]

14. In the old days, stations bought movie packages

So there was a package of Universal horror movies, a package of Ginger Rogers movies, a package of the Tarzan movies, etc. They would have a limitation on number of plays and/or a window of a number of years they could broadcast them. Nowadays, I think that business is pretty much dead because of movie rentals and cable channels like AMC and TCM. What movies local broadcasters do show are usually of recent vintage and usually syndicated. That's too bad cuz some of the older flicks, especially the fun B movies, fall through the cracks -- they are no longer broadcast and there isn't a lucrative market for advertising them or even releasing them on video. I wonder if I would have seen all the great Universal horror movies if a local channel hadn't broadcast them every Saturday night on "Chiller Theater" when I was a kid.

[dmkinsey]

3. Jigsaw Puzzles

Board games and when it stopped snowing we'd go outside sledding couple times a day,until they got the roads cleared and we'd have to go back to school

[bambo53]

4. Check on the livestock

We never really got storm warnings like we do now, but in the winter we always made sure we had enough food & water to last us awhile.

We also had to bed down the horses and cattle with lots of straw so they'd be warm and comfortable, and chop the ice out of their water tanks to drink.

BTW- Snow storms also tend to induce labor, so we spent a lot of time out in the barn then. I almost miss it:)

[bamademo]

6. We sometimes have semi-blizzards in North Alabama

Course if we get snow flurries, they close the roads and the schools.
I remember the storm of the century in 1992. We stayed in and played cards and watched old movies.

In 1996 I survived an ice storm with a grouchy ex and 2 Golden Retrievers. No electricity for a week. For entertainment we went outside and chain sawed the trees that had fallen in the road.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. First, they buy toilet paper. According to traditional American beliefs,

only large quantities of toilet paper will appease the Snow Spirits and prevent loss of electric power.

[bluedeminredstate]

8. In Richmond

the whole city flocks to Ukrops, our local grocery chain, and buys all the bread, milk and eggs on the shelves. Then they cancel every event for several days before and after the storm. Then they talk about it incessantly on the news.
The kids go outside and have fun since it doesn't happen all that often. I might only see my kids for a few minutes during the snow when they come in for dry mittens and hats. The kids here are hardcore when it comes to enjoying the snow.
I usually get in grungy, warm clothes and make soup and homemade cookies. Seems like the thing to do...

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

9. Go to the grocery stores

buy as much bread , milk and sugar as you can even though you know you're not going to eat it all . Or like my family : go to the grocery store at the last minute and curse the people who got there before you because they beat you to the bread , milk and sugar .

[WindRavenX]

10. Stock up on water

I've got tons of Special K and granola bars to last for food stuff; I just want to have tons of water on hand.
And start downloading some movies to watch :evilgrin:
I hope class is cancelled tomorrow...I don't want to go to Chem lab x(

[Green Mountain Dem]

11. Too late for us....

here in Underhill Vermont....34" and still counting with heavy snow still comin down. Cannot even open doors to get out...not that we want to.. but if we get below 18 cans of Bud Light, a critical decision will have to be made. So I must head to the "situation room" right now to discuss tactics and I will try to keep all of you updated.

[madrchsod]

12. nothing to much

people really didn`t get all upset. toughed it out and waited for the plows to get the streets cleared..no "the sky is falling" so we have to run out and buy everything in site.....

[RebelOne]

13. I thought you were going to say they stock up on bread and milk

At least, that's what they do here in No. Georgia when there is any hint of snow.

[oneighty]

15. In the old days Trof

We scrape Jack Frost's art work off the window, look out over Lake Erie, see storm all over the place. Go back to bed. We did not have electricity, radio, gas, nothing. Blizzard just another happening in a dull world.
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