A Look Back at Snow Days Past Captured in Black and (Mostly) White
Boston.com caught up with the subjects of some of The Boston Globe’s most striking photos from snowstorms of decades ago.
A snow sculpture gets finishing touches on Huron Ave. in Cambridge. (February 11, 1978)
Webb Nichols
Webb Nichols (seen on left wearing a hat) and another Cambridge architect were photographed in February 1978 working on a snow sculpture outside Nichols’ Huron Avenue home.
“I do remember this day. This was in response to the Cambridge Arts Council putting on a snow sculpture competition. I made some diagrams, scaled up, this is based on a famous marble statue of a fallen Greek warrior, from outside the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina. The sculpture was about eight feet long,’’ Nichols told Boston.com.
A self-described hoarder, Nichols saved the original sketch he made, which he shared with Boston.com. “I keep any sketch, any at all,’’ he said.
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The snow sculpture competition was held following the Blizzard of ‘78, the storm that dumped over 27 inches of snow on Massachusetts and paralyzed the region for days.
“I really remember that snowstorm, how communities came together, no cars were on the streets — the snow was too high — people wandered about, got a 5-day vacation, really, they really enjoyed it, didn’t have to go to work, school,’’ Nichols said. “The weather that day stayed fairly cold, so we could make a lot of detail. I won first prize, I think!’’
Nichols’ two daughters, Lila and Anna, then 6 and 8 years old, are pictured in the photo. Anna is now a social worker in Seattle. Lila is a pediatrician.
Nichols is now an inventor. He is also a part-time Uber driver.
“I drive for Uber in the mornings, I start driving at 4 in the morning, I go back to my office and work on product development analysis in the evenings.’’
Matthew Farneth and friend roll their bikes through a storm in his neighborhood. (January 10, 1984)The Boston Globe
Matthew Farneth
Matthew Farneth, a Dorchester native, is now living the dream: he is 45, with two beautiful daughters, a nice home in New Hampshire and an extremely successful career. Not too bad for the once rambunctious teen who felt as though growing up in the inner city put all odds against him.
Farneth told Boston.com he grew up in a time where all the kids on the block were friends and where they were always playing—or getting into trouble—outside.
“Not only did everyone play outside, but our neighborhood only did BMX (bikes). One kid would come out with the latest trick he knew how to do, and [we’d] try to out do each other,’’ Farneth said.
Bikes played a large part in Farneth’s childhood. He remembers kids buying expensive bikes and completely stripping them of their frills, just to make lighter and better able to perform more impressive tricks. They would bike every season, even in the snow.
That’s why he so vividly remembers the Boston Globe photographer who stopped him on that exceptionally snowy day to take this picture of him and his neighborhood friend.
“At first we both looked at each other like ‘who is this guy?’ We were definitely at first skeptical. We didn’t know if he was a nut or something!’’ Farneth said. “But he took the picture and we were the stars for the week in the neighborhood!’’
This was not Farneth’s first time in the Globe. At 12-years-old, he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop with friends and fell between the two buildings.
“Thinking of that, to me it was a small miracle that that picture was even able to be taken,’’ Farneth said.
Farneth now works building custom trade show exhibits. He lives in New Hampshire and has a family of his own. And he is very pleased with where he is in life.
“[As kids] we were bored. Our parents had to work so there wasn’t a lot of supervision,’’ Farneth said. “We felt like we were voted most likely not to succeed. So every once in a while I go out on my back deck, smell the grass and think, ‘boy they were wrong.’’’
Charles Tuffile walks by a snowman at the New England Flower Show. (March 15, 1975)The Boston Globe
Charles Tuffile
A Globe photographer caught this photo of 2-year-old Charles Tuffile walking by a flower-holding snowman at the New England Flower Show in Boston.
Charles’ father, Fred, told Boston.com he remembers his son in awe of the snowman, but not overly thrilled with the rest of the flower show.
Charles no longer goes to the show every year with his horticulturist mother, but went every year as a child. It was an excursion from their island home in Lakeville. The show has now moved into different convention centers, changing yearly.
Charles now has five children of his own.
“He is busy building snowmen of his own with his kids now,’’ Fred said.
Nancy Callan inspects her sea serpent sculpture outside her classroom at Mass College of Art. (March 23, 1992)The Boston Globe
Nancy Callan
Callan was photographed while putting the finishing touches on a sea serpent snow sculpture she made with her 3D Design class outside Mass College of Art.
“I remember that day quite well. It was my first year at MassArt. I was in a sculpture class. There were beautiful windows in our classroom, and the snow was just falling. It was beautiful,’’ Callan told Boston.com.
“I’m kind of a restless person wanting to go outside all the time, I thought maybe I could propose to the teacher — I think his name was Chuck Stigliano — that we all go outside to make a three dimensional sculpture in the snow, and to have a project like that for the day. Chuck was a young guy, really great, he thought it was a great idea, then the whole class wanted to do it, too. We just gathered everyone up, the building’s at a nice spot on Huntington Ave., a little grass area, roundabout there between the river and Huntington Ave. We spent an hour and a half making the snow sculpture; I wanted it to be a big sea monster sort of thing, everybody was on board with that. It was an amazing time! I think there were about 8 or 12 people making the serpent. It was really big. It was probably the first time in art school that I got a bunch of people together to make something, my first time in art school actually leading an effort.’’
Callan grew up in Peabody, and remembers how she “used to make snow forts all the time.’’
She is now a glass sculpture artist living in Seattle.
“I don’t miss the cold but I do miss the snow.’’
Laura Fidone sleds with her friends after power outages in her neighborhood. (February 9, 1969)
Laura Fidone
Laura Fidone was 12-years-old when she was photographed sledding in Milton with friends John and Tim Moran.
“It was a big year for me,’’ she says. “The Morans were good friends. They lived in the neighborhood. The younger of the two boys in the front was Timmy Moran. We loved the winter! The snow seemed bigger then, but we were smaller. Lots of snow also meant no school which was always very cool.’’
Mike Sample frolics in the snow alongside his then neighbor’s dog, Union. (January 1, 1978)
Mike Sample
Mike Sample was 11-years-old when he was photographed bounding through the deep snow with his neighbor’s dog on his street near Wollaston Boulevard in Quincy.
Sample told Boston.com he had been playing in the street because it hadn’t yet been cleared “and there were no cars to avoid.’’
The storm a few weeks after this photograph, Sample recalled much more clearly, because it was the infamous blizzard of ‘78, but also because the storm ended a day or so after his birthday.
“My sleepover had to be cancelled,’’ he remembered.
Today, Sample lives in Braintree with his wife and son and is an electrician with Local 103.
Jim Sonia shovels a driveway with his friends Jim and Sean Rooney. (May 10, 1977)
Jim Sonia
Jim Sonia doesn’t remember his photo being taken, but remembers that around that time, he and his friends were “mad, because Little League was cancelled.’’
In this May 1977 photo, Sonia had been shoveling a neighbor’s driveway with Jim and Sean Rooney — friends of his since kindergarten who lived across the street.
The ‘78 blizzard was less than a year later, and Sonia remembers that more fondly, saying that it felt like he hadn’t been in school for a month (the storm came in right after February break). He remembers jumping off his school rooftop after the storm into a snowbank 30-feet deep — the other side of the school was strangely bare, free of snow. He also remembers hide-and-seek in the snow, being given money to buy milk from the store, and being out until the streetlights came on along his street.
“It was an easier time, more fun,’’ he said. “It was a great time to be a kid.’’
The Rooneys moved away to Mattapoisett a few years after the Blizzard of ‘78, Sonia says, but he still lives in the same house he was born in. Every Halloween season, he engages in “friendly competition’’ over best decorations with the family living in what used to be the Rooneys’ house.
Sonia spent years as a truck driver for the city of Brookline but is now retired and “just doin’ the dad thing.’’
Check out Boston.com’s Definitive Guide to Snow Removal Personality Types.
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