Snow

With the word snow, my mind drifts to snow day. Waking up in the morning on a school day, looking out the window to see the white blanket on the road, and listening to the radio to hear the DJ announce the school district is closed for the day.

The time that stands out the most was sometime in the mid 1970's. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but probably around eleven or so. The neighborhood where I grew up was made up primarily of families. Our street was mostly flat, but at one end, there was a steep hill that went down. There were two cul-de-sacs that jutted off of it. The kids on my street, Barjo Lane, and one of the cul-de-sacs, or circles as we called them, Lakemeadow Court, all hung out together. We were often outside, even on these cold days, sled riding or ice skating on the pond in the woods nearby.

This time though, we didn't need to walk through the woods to get to the pond. All of the streets were covered in ice. The boys went into the circle and set up a net at the top of it so they could play hockey. The girls weren't interested in the game, even if theboys would have let us play. Instead, we skated up and down the streets. I'm not sure exactly how long this lasted, but in my memory, it seems like days went by.

During this time, my mom, who was a nurse, was scheduled to work. Many nurses and doctors were unable to get to the hospital due to the treacherous roads. When my brother and I went inside on one of our breaks from skating, our mom told us that she was going to be gone for what would be at least two or three days. She said that the National Guard was coming to pick her up to take her to work and that she would have to stay at the hospital in one of the empty rooms until the roads cleared enough for her to get home.

When the truck tried to get to our house, it couldn't get up the hill at the end of our street. Mom had to walk down the hill to get to it. For grade school kids, this was exciting. The whole neighborhood walked with her to the truck. We must have looked like a winter wonderland parade. Once the truck pulled away, we resumed our activities.

I don't remember exactly how long she was gone or how long it took the roads to clear, but I do recall that when the salt truck finally made its way down our street, everyone booed and yelled at the driver to go away. We had been having so much fun and we didn't want it to end. With the salt, the ice on the roads melted and the skating on the streets ended and within a day or two, we went back to school, but that is one snow day memory that has stayed with me.