February 5, 1995

After six weeks of languorous winter, the first big snowstorm of the season roared across the New York metropolitan area and the Northeast with a vengeance yesterday, obliterating the region under accumulations 6 to 16 inches deep and turning the day into a hardship for some and a magical adventure for others. As if making up for lost time, the storm -- a comma-shaped Northeaster, 300 miles across -- barreled up the Atlantic Seaboard and transformed landscapes from Virginia to Massachusetts. It disrupted air, rail and highway travel, knocked out power to thousands, closed businesses, flooded low-lying coastal areas and shut down all but emergency government services. In New Jersey, two brothers were killed when their car crossed the center line of a snowy road in Monmouth County and hit a snow plow.

FROM the outside it is not much to look at, this bulky brick factory wedged within an industrial area in the city of Orange. Only a small white sign -- "The First Occupational Center of New Jersey" -- offers a clue to what goes on inside. Past a string of offices, three people sit in a large, bright room, showing what they can do in hopes of finding a job. One files index cards in a small metal box; another fastens variously shaped blocks into their proper places; the third punches a computer keyboard.

DAU CHUNG and his wife, Janet Millstein, of Wyckoff, N.J., have been shopping for a mini-van for 18 months. They have finally narrowed their choices to three, and all things being equal their decision may come down to the vehicle on which they get the best price. In recent weeks, they have received new ammunition for striking a deal on the Ford Windstar, Mercury Villager or Nissan Quest that they desire. The introduction of new mini-vans, combined with a general softening of vehicle sales as interest rates have risen, has resulted in the best deals in some time. Manufacturers are offering rebates of up to $3,000, low-interest loans and attractive lease plans.

WHEN a trial run of a commuter ferry from Haverstraw on the west bank of the Hudson River to this village on the east bank was held last November, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was supposed to be a passenger. But the New York Democrat, author of a law to encourage alternative modes of surface transportation, missed the boat.

Not very long ago, Smokey Joe's, like a magnet, drew students to its horse shoe-shaped bar, with its wooden booths and photos of old University of Pennsylvania sports heroes. The beer flowed freely. Students from Penn, Drexel University, St. Joseph's University and other colleges still come to the bar, but these days they are just as likely to order a Coke as a pitcher of Bud. Call it the age of moderation.