During Tom Atkins weather forecast last night on Jet TV, he had a trivia question about which Christmas had 20” of snow and wind chills of 40-50 below. “Of course,” I told my wife, “it was the Christmas of 1983.”

That year I was two months into a very part time job working as an air personality at WJET 1400 AM in Erie. My assignment for Christmas was to play the tapes of the full-time jocks playing their favorite Christmas songs throughout the early morning. The forecast for Christmas was dire, even for those days. Basically, a blizzard was in store. I was without wheels back then, being a lowly college student, and my father didn’t want me driving the only family car to inevitably get stuck. So we made a plan that my dad would drive me to the station during Christmas Eve before the storm hit, and I would stay there overnight and take a cab home the next day.

So there I was, sleeping on the floor of our Program Director Ken Tyler’s office on Christmas morning. I was awakened about 5:30 AM by Mark Priscaro, who was finishing up the overnight shift, and I was going to be on through the morning to play the tapes.

The airshift went on without a hitch. I remember several of the jocks playing “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” as that was the big novelty song that year. Meanwhile, outside the Erie area was getting crushed by an historical snowfall for Christmas. Somehow, the fellow who was to relieve me made it to the station (I think he had a big ‘ol 4-wheeler), and I had arranged for a cab to take me home.

The taxi pulled up on time, and as I enter I find the driver dressed in a Santa suit, with his cab’s interior decorated with ornaments and lights. It is the most memorable taxi ride of my life.  He drove his cab as if it was Santa’s sleigh, bounding through the snow on Erie’s Ash Street, north to 12th. He really didn’t turn left onto 12th but more like whipped the cab’s rear end around with a jerk to be facing west. We plowed snow and he did the same maneuver to turn left onto Sassafras and continued south to my block on 18th.  People that know Erie will recognize that he took the long way to 18th & Sass. but on that day, he went the only way he could considering the snow.  I paid my fare and gave him a big tip. He dropped me at the corner and with a hardy “Merry Christmas,” he went on his way.

I walked the half-block to my house, glad to be home even as the whole city was shut down. I thought to myself that I’d always remember where I was on the Christmas of 1983.