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The Blizzard of '78

I was hitchhiking home to Dayton
From my Columbus college dorm
It was an early winter’s morning
I layered my clothes to stay warm

I stood on the ramp to the highway
Watching early commuters pass me by
I tried to look innocent and harmless
As the drivers avoided my pleading eye

About a hundred yards up ahead
The car pulled over to the side
When I saw the backup lights come on
I knew I finally had my first ride

She was only about thirty or so
But to a college kid that’s old
The red circles that surrounded her eyes
Of a crying story they told

She looked too scared to be doing this
I was too cold not to accept
So I threw my pack in the back seat door
And into the front I slowly crept

She said, “Where are you going to
And why are you out here with your thumb
Hitchhiking is oh so dangerous
Especially for a boy who is so young”

I said, “I’m going all the way to Dayton
And, I think I’ll be just fine
I do this fairly often
To pick me up you are so kind”

She headed west down I-70
Without saying how far she’d go
Outside it was getting blustery
And the skies started to snow

As we were coming up to Springfield
The roads were getting rough
It was approaching blizzard conditions
And the driving was getting tough

I watched tears escape down each of her cheeks
As silently we crept along
The radio had never been turned on
And the wind was our only song

She sobbed, “I was hoping to get you home alright
But I think that we must stop
I am going to get off of this exit
Maybe with another driver you can hop”

We pulled into a Restaurant
Where she offered to buy me lunch
I thought she needed to tell her story
Or at least that was my hunch

I heard a story full of loneliness
A story of torment and abuse
A story of a wife who was running away
Picking up a hitchhiker was a good excuse

The blizzard continued to get worse
The roads were now shut down
We got a room in the hotel across the street
On the outskirts of the town

I won’t say what happened that evening
But I hitchhiked back to Columbus when the storm did break
I never did quite make it home that week
During the Blizzard of ‘78

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