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Hurricane Gloria vs. The Garden State Parkway


I remember September 27th, 1985, I drove through it to work before it ramped up to a ridiculous nearly deadly event for me. Our boss never called us in time. The CEOs assistant secretary was given the job by our boss to call; however, it was our boss Sandy who was the one who was to make the call. She'd put it off on someone else. Sheer laziness on her part. Sandy only had 4-5 of us to call that morning.  

After I'd entered the Cushman & Wakefield property accounting office , I was told to leave the building. Three of us had to get property values/accounting done. Kathy was in,Hathy came in after me. The building manager asked why we were there. The three of us never got the call. I had the furthest to drive back home. We finished the job for the firm in Manhattan by 8:30 that morning. I always came in early, especially if I knew it would or could be bad weather. No excuse not to show up. I had gone for a run in this crap too before work which was nothing compared to my drive home. 

Alas, I was on the Garden State Parkway when the storm had hit the hardest in New Jersey. I was driving in our 1984 Buick Skyhawk. The car was being pushed nearly all over the place of the highway from about the 153P entrance ramp to Route 20 into Paterson, NJ. I couldn't see more than a couple yards around me. I held the steering wheel tight, squinted and prayed the Our Father till I got off the highway and into downtown Paterson. It was still wicked, but I could now see 30 yards around me and not one soul was on the road. 15 minutes later, I pulled up in front of our apartment. I climbed the outside stairs to the deck. Hubby, Norm heard me. The wind whipped. He could barely hold onto the door as he'd opened it for me. As he said, "Michelle Scarpone just called a minute ago to tell you not to come in." I replied, "Kathy, Hathy and I finished the project that our boss, Sandy wanted out the door by 9 this morning to get to the Manhattan MetLife office."

I truly thought I was going to die on the Garden State Parkway that day driving home. I'd driven through horrendous blizzards, yet that day took the cake. The car I drove that day was a stick shift. I'd driven in the rain with 5 tons and tractor trailers in the Marines. Just that could be unsafe to a large vehicle. This was absolutely nuts.---Jody-Lynn Reicher 


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