No, they normally weren't too bad. They really shouldn't have been flying through that storm. It was severe turbulence.

No, the bad ones were the tiny planes that US Air used to fly from Chicago to NY. They were so underpowered that in strong wind, they'd fly sideways instead of moving forward. Those were always getting canceled. And then you had to overnight in Chicago.

The REALLY bad ones were the ones where they asked the passengers how much they weighed as they were getting on the plane. If they weighed too much, they'd leave some of the luggage behind on the tarmac.