My experience was very similar to yours. I was 11 years old, always enjoyed snow, but this was the storm that I caught the "snow weenie illness". I have not been the same since....lol. Seriously, it changed me.
I remember that Sunday evening well. My Grandmother who lived up the street from us in Baltimore, would come down to our house every Sunday night for Spaghetti night. She made the spaghetti. She was older and walked with a cane due to arthritis. When it started snowing, she wanted to get back to her house quickly because she was not good with walking. So, I went in front sweeping the sidewalk for her while my mother and Grandmother walked gingerly behind.
I remember watching Bob Turk that night (he was with WJZ forever and not even a met.). It was probably the 6PM news. His forecast was for 1-3 or 2-4. So I went to bed with that in my mind. Something woke me up very early in the morning. It was the wind. I had a window next to my bed, so I ducked my head under the curtain and looked outside. I was really confused because I could hardly see a thing outside my window. But I was able to see the orange glow of the sky due to the urban lights, so I knew it was still snowing. I tipped toed downstairs because everyone was still sleeping. I looked out the front door and absolutely could not believe my eyes! It was snowing harder than I had ever seen before in my life. I was amazed!! I never thought it could snow that hard. It was puking snow! (People on here use that word nowadays, but they have no idea what puking snow really looks like). Our front porch was a covered porch, but there was two plus feet of snow right up to the front door due to the wind. I wanted to keep the moment to myself, so I purposely, did not wake up my brothers or parents. I spent the next hour or two going from window to window saying quietly, "WOW!" over and over again.
The next day all of the neighbors started to shovel out the street as we were told that the city was not going to be able to plow side streets for up to a week. It was like a neighborhood party. My school, which did not close for snow often, was out for a week!
The '83 blizzard was also very cool because we were out playing in it when the rounds of thunder snow came through. I don't remember thunder snow from the '79 blizzard, but perhaps I slept through it. Nothing will replace the euphoria I felt waking up on that Monday morning in Feb. of '79!