Snow Stories

Snow Stories

Well, I hope this finds your warm and dry and enjoying milk sandwiches in the midst of the blizzard of 17.

We ended up getting about 9” here at the house.

This was the first year the kids could largely dress themselves for snow! That really helped out a lot. In previous years we would spend an hour plus getting dressed and about 10 minutes outside, maybe 15. This year was the opposite. We went sledding, hiking and had plenty of snow fights!

On one particular sledding run I tripped and fell over while pulling Sam who face planted into a snow bank. We both were stuck momentarily in the snow drift and couldn’t stopped laughing. I took a moment to look up and thank God that I get to stay home with my children now instead of having to hitch a ride with someone or drive really slowly into work somewhere.

I have a lot of really good snow memories from as far back as I can remember. I can remember my mom making snow cream. I can remember sledding down Windsor Drive with the neighbor kids in the late 80’s. I remember building a snow fort with my cousin at my meh-meh’s house in Norlina. I ended up getting to stay there an extra night or two because we got stuck in the snow and couldn’t get back home.

 I can remember it snowing so much in 5^th grade that my mom cursed the snow and wished it would never snow again. It was a few years before it did so again!

In the mid 90’s it snowed again on a weekend I was with my Dad. We borrowed some sleds from his neighbor and spent the night sledding down Gordon Street the street lights and the snow still falling made for a great time and it remains one of my best high school memories.

Then of course was the Blizzard of 2000.

I had just started working at the bank about a month before. We had a meeting early that afternoon about the snow storm. There were a few volunteers who were willing to stay at a nearby hotel. The supervisor said something to the effect of “They aren’t calling for that much snow presently. Just come on in if you can. Stay home and be safe if you can’t.” She gave everyone her home number and told us to call her to let her know either way in the morning. I went home after my shift was over and went to bed like usual.

Then around 5AM my mom woke me up.

Mom: Are you going to work today?
Me: *groggily since this was an hour before I normally got up* uh, yeah if it’s not too bad.
Mom: I don’t think you are going to make it in….
Me:????
Mom: Come look.

I walk into the den and open the blinds to the sliding glass doors on the side of the house. I saw 3 feet of snow as part of a massive snow drift on that side of the house. My mom was concerned about our dog outside in the pen. I went out the front door (which required a decent running leap to get out of) and made my way to the dog pen. I got her into our storage building in the back yard and trekked back to the house. About 6:30 I called my supervisor.

Me: Supervisor, I don’t think I’m going to make it in.
Supervisor: Oh, don’t say that.
Me: You haven’t looked outside have you?
Supervisor: Hold On, oh…. I’ll see you in a few days.

Of course after that it was mandatory to stay in the hotel every time the weatherman said snow. For a few years this meant the Hilton with a food allowance. For the last year two years I was at the helpdesk this meant the Fairfield inn with a promise of reimbursement on meals. I tried that once. It took them almost 2 months to refund me the $5 I spent at cookout. However, I did have a really great manager for that time period as well. She would take us all to dinner at cracker barrel anytime we had to stay over and would get us lunch the next day as well. I’m pretty sure she did that all out of her own pocket as well.

One year shortly before I got married it snowed during the weekend. I was living with my friend Shea and his family at the time. Our friend Jared came over as well as Surge. We wanted to sled but had no sleds. So we drove to Wal-Mart (very very slowly) and discovered they had no sleds as well. So we went into the automotive section and got a large oil drip pan and two tire inner tubes. We then stopped at a service station and filled the tubes with air. We finally get back to the house and as we are walking with our make shift sleds to the top of the hill a snow plow appears and scraps this one road and then leaves. Didn’t scrap any other roads, just the one we were about to sled on. Then it left and didn’t scrap any of the other roads until Tuesday/Wednesday. Undaunted we spent the evening sledding down a nearby road.  We plowed into several snow banks, narrowly missed a mailbox, and managed to abandon sled before we went into a creek. Good times!

Well that’s enough reminiscing now as my bread is ready to be taken out of the oven!  Ugh, that doesn’t look like bread at all. Oh well. I’ll try again.

Much Love!

Pastor Glen