If you grew up in the Chicago area and you are about my age, you remember The Blizzard of 1967. It is the snowstorm we measure all others against. 23 inches of snow fell with drifts up to 8 feet deep.

I was 6 years old at the time and I remember helping my mom bake cookies while it was snowing. The wind was blowing off the lake from the northeast and the snow was piling up on the window ledges outside of our living room. I remember it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. We had to clear the front door of snow for fear of being trapped inside. And we didn't dare venture outside until it was over.

When it was over, we went outside and were amazed at what we saw. The snow had drifted up as high as the garage roof. We immediately got busy digging a tunnel around the garage and up against the south side of the house on the patio. We had never seen such an opportunity for adventure. We played outside until our clothes got soaked. We then came in and let them dry out in our pantry where the furnace was. After they dried, we went out again. I don't remember much more...

I do remember though seeing a picture of my grandparents years later in front of their house in Edgebrook digging out after the great blizzard of '67. My grandfather's name was John Nielsen, but my grandma called him Jack and he was 76 years old at the time. There they were shoveling snow over their heads.

Little did they know at the time that that would be my grandfather's last great snowstorm. He would die of throat cancer a little over a year later. But remembering that picture, their smiles as they proudly battled all that mother nature could dish out, is one I'll never forget.

So today, 44 years later, I sit and watch the Weather Channel as they forecast a major winter storm heading for Chicago. Will it be "an Oklahoma hooker", a nickname for a storm that curls up from the southwest and wraps around the windy city? Will it be the latest "Storm of the Century"? We shall see and if it is, memories will be made.