Blizzard Boy
So there I was last Wednesday night waiting like everyone else for the big blizzard to strike when an e-mail arrived. Evidently, someone at ABC news had seen that I’d written BLIZZARD! The Storm That Changed America and wanted to interview me. I was surprised and happy to see that a ten-year-old book could still be noticed and immediately e-mailed that I’d be happy to do it. Which was when I found out it would be done live at 2:15AM!
Well, okay, I’d said yes. I stayed up in my little office, listening to the rest of the house peacefully sleeping, watching the snow falling outside my window, and waiting patiently (if sleepily) for the phone to ring. It did, of course, and after patching me into this feed, doing an audio test, and being transferred here and there, I was ready to go. Or rather, wait. I sat there, phone to my ear, listening as their show ran live — from the Central Park skating rink, from someplace in Queens with icy road conditions, from the studio where the anchors chatted — and the seconds ticked down to me. Next thing I know I’m on and talking away about the Blizzard of 1888, what sort of changes took place in New York City as a result of that storm, how weather was reported back then…all in four minutes flat. Then I was off and ABC sprinted on with other breaking stories.
The experience was exhilarating and fun in a breathless sort of way and even before I was awake in the morning another request came for an interview, this time for a local New York area station. They’d seen the the interview. And then a newspaper reporter called. Amazing. I wondered how many other calls I might have gotten if the storm went on for days (as the 1888 storm did). But it became clear that the 2010 snow would end quietly in the late afternoon without ever becoming a real blizzard and that my career as Blizzard Boy for a Day would, too. But it was a beautiful snowfall while it lasted.
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