It’s hard to believe it’s been 35 years since Needham was hit with the Blizzard of '78, but the stories will withstand the test of time.

On Feb. 6, 1978, the area was blanketed with a record 27 inches of snow with the added bonus of hurricane force winds. The storm began the morning of Feb. 6 and lasted through the following evening. It was a storm that was never really predicted to be this large, and yet from it one good thing came — we learned about emergency preparedness.

For those of us who were old enough to remember, the memories differ. The motorist stuck in his car for hours on the highway, the family wondering where that person was, to a community paralyzed by Mother Nature in a storm no one ever expected.

Thirty-five years ago we had 27 inches of snow. Today, the forecast is saying temps will be in the 30s. I’ll take the 30-degree temps over what happened here a little more than three decades ago.