Boston (and Melrose) , MA

Boston, MA

I just finished reading the different stories of people living through Hurricane Carol and had to add mine! I was 17 and just recently graduated from high school working my first real job on State Street in Boston.  My girl friend and I took the bus and subway to work in Boston from Melrose that day, but shortly after arriving at the office, we were told to go home due to the pending storm. 

As we made our way up State Street to catch the subway into Everett Station, the wind had increased so much we were literally walking at a 45 degree angle!  What fun!!!  We boarded the train and got as far as the middle of the Charles River when we lost our power.  There were just two other people in the railroad car and I don't recall them being particularly alarmed and frankly, at the age of 17 we didn't have enough sense to be frightened.  Of course I remember quite vividly the wind hitting the car and shaking it which was a bit of an eery feeling, but all we did was peer out the window at the river below us.  Oh my ... a long way down there!  Anyway, we thought it was quite a lark and ended up sitting there eating our sandwiches that we brought for lunch!!! 

After an hour or so, the power was restored and we "limped" into Everett Station at which time we found out ours was the last train out of Boston due to the storm and power failure.  Just think, we might have had to spend the next week over the Charles River!!!  Unfortunately, all public transportation had come to a dead halt, so my friend and I started to walk.  By that time the rain had stopped but the wind was still pretty gusty and luckily an Everett police car stopped and drove us to the Maldon line, radioing ahead to get us a Maldon police car to pick us up.  They drove us to Melrose where we were met by a Melrose policeman who got us within a couple of miles of downtown Melrose only to be stopped by a very large tree that had fallen across Main Street blocking traffic.  At that point we headed out on foot and fortunately it was during the eye of the storm so we did arrive home safely and just ahead of the back side of the storm! 

Over the years I have had experience with other hurricanes including driving from Boston to Florida in 1960 while Hurricane Donna was busy going from Florida to Boston at the same time and we met in Virginia!  But that's another story!!!

Beth Dyer, formerly of Melrose, MA Currently residing in St. Petersburg, FL