SNOW
It’s a well-known fact that it doesn’t snow very often in the
South – and when it does it’s not even deep enough to cause a regular snow area
to even blink (read that as Colorado, Montana, the Dakotas, Michigan, New
Jersey, Maine, etc…) Recently we have experienced a couple of annoying cold
weather “storms of the century” (that’s the newscasters’ dramatic words – not
mine.) So…I thought it was appropriate to tell some Southern snowstorm stories
– don’t worry they are few and short – thank the Good Lord. (Ok - well you know I can drag a story out sometimes...)
I reckon the best place to start is how I experienced snow
growing up in the South. Well… I think we got a dusting of snow once or twice
in the 17 years I was a consistent resident down close to the GA-FL line. I do
remember being excited and intrigued about those times, but I don’t think they
were heavier than even being able to build a tiny snowball before it all melted
away. The worst part of snow or even unusually cold weather was frozen pipes
and dead plants and/or crops. Those
weren’t necessarily my concerns at the time – I just remember some adult
discussion about “the freeze” ruining this-or-that. And… I’m not sure how much was sadness from loss of yard
work versus loss of crop/livelihood money.
Now, there were opportunities to venture to the great north
(Gatlinburg, TN and Cherokee, NC) where snow does fall a few times a year, and
occasionally a bad storm will put them under inches – even feet – of snow.
However, we mostly chose to visit that region on the every other yearly vacation - in the summer. (FL was so close…why
would we drive to the north every winter?) These were wise decisions made by
our parents. So… I can’t really remember being north enough to see a “real”
amount of snow before we went to West Virginia. It was quite a fun trip. At the
time, I was dating a guy I truly loved – and still do – who was an excellent
travel companion. He and I had a similar sense of humor, so the 8, 10, whatever
hour drive to my aunt and uncle’s house went by quickly. We amused ourselves –
and others on the trip. Besides torturing
drive-through clerks (I apologize – that was wrong. Funny, but wrong.) we may
have possibly created some discord in a store when one of us pretended to be
blind and knocked over an entire rack of clothing… That was a fun trip
filled with juvenile pranks – but very fun! We arrived safely in WV, and as
expected were faced with snow-laden and icy roads. Those folks are used to
seeing that – particularly in the mountainous areas – so they were good at
preparing the roads. It wasn’t too dangerous, but your vehicle definitely took
on a lot of dirty snow/ice. Of course, the reasons to drive up there in the
winter were to visit our aunt, uncle and cousins, and to boot – we’d also get
to go snow skiing. Hadn’t ever done that
in South GA. With graciously loaned snowsuits and gear, we headed to the
mountain. I remember crashing a few times and inexplicably excelling a few
times… what I most remember, though, is a crash. No, no – it wasn’t mine. It
was my younger brother’s crash. Bless his heart, he had decided to brave one of
those double diamonds. That decision landed him face-first, legs split into a
tree… He made it down the mountain. I’ll still never forget him throwing his
skis, gloves, jacket down a hallway muttering about his crash. My boyfriend and
I picked up his discards in his wake, but wisely left my brother alone. Our
first big adventure into snow was good overall, but I was yet to encounter real
snow, real deep – blizzards, even…
This may seem completely unrelated…I was planning a beach
trip. Hold on – I’ll get there: it was nearing spring break at Berry College.
Some of my friends and I were going to visit my family in South GA and then
spend 5 days or so at the beach in the panhandle of FL. Lo and behold, one week
before the break we had a blizzard hit north GA. At the college’s main campus
it wasn’t terrible – a few feet, but we definitely had some fun in the drifts
that got as deep as 6-7 feet (mostly due to depressions or soccer practice
fields lower than “street height” or depressions due to sinkholes…sorry, a different story entirely.) We
did, however, lose power and were simultaneously unable to evacuate. The
college was wonderful in providing whatever food they had available at no
charge to anyone, and we figured it was a good idea to stuff all our
mini-refrigerator items into the snow to keep ‘em safe. It worked quite well until we ran out of milk and cereal – I mean,
that’s usually all we had in our minis. OK… other fun things I recall from
that blizzard: making snow angels; playing cards at the boys’ basketball team’s
apartment (I was a college athletic trainer at the time, so I knew all of them
well and went with a group of female athletes.); hiking through the snow to get
food from other dorm rooms; one of the basketball guys turning a vending
machine upside down to get food from it; jumping into the snow drifts that were
chest or head height just for the fun of it; being grateful for a week off
class – and that we knew we’d be in FL days from then. Well, the power outage ran
a bit longer than expected – as did the evacuation. At some point we hiked out
through the snow to a friend’s parents’ house. We’d never been so grateful for
a local student! (That’s entirely not
true…this particular student was and is one of the greatest friends I’ve ever
had – and that will be immediately backed up by all of the others whose lives
she has touched.) After our li’l trek, we were well fed, warm and grateful.
Eventually, the weather complied, and we were able to drive
around town again… long enough to pack our swimsuits for FL! We were in college – the thawing of the snow
and returning our ability to drive independently were all we were concerned
with in the moment. So, off we drove to where Big Mary laid out a marvelous
meal in South GA, and we traveled further to have beautiful beach weather on
the gulf for a few days.
Back to the snow…there were certainly snow times (mostly it
was barely snow that turned into ice – which is actually worse) that I
encountered again while I lived in Atlanta. Oh, and before that: I did a li’l
job in northern New Mexico. It was on a ranch larger than 100,000 acres.
Apparently, in the desert the nights are cold – even in the summer. It actually
snowed on us twice in June! I’ll have
some future stories to tell about those months with old-fashioned outhouses,
horses and sleeping in open lofts, barns and lean-to’s.
The next big unexpected snow throwing a Southern girl for a
loop was when I was in Baltimore. (I’m not even going to get into any kind of
argument of whether Baltimore is north or South…just gonna tell the story.)
Apparently, this was the worst snowstorm in over 100 years for Baltimore. I’ve
read some reports that say in over 120 years. Also, the newspapers and weather
channels recorded anywhere from 28-37 inches in 3-4 days (depends on which one
you’re talking to – and if you factor in those that argue snow should be
measured before it’s packed down with its own weight, those estimates would be
even higher.) Also, there were certainly drifts deeper than the “official
measurements.”
This was our brief
break in snow downfall during those 3-4 days. More was to come.
At the time, I lived on sort of a downward sloping
neighborhood that stretches from the more city-center-proper to Fell’s Point on
the bay. So, in those spots that dipped lower than others, some of the snow was
over 4 feet – even when it was packed down.
We obviously figured a
way to dig ourselves out a bit – if only for the dawg. :~)
My neighbors’ dogs and our dog couldn’t see above the snow
except on higher ground or after they’d run around and stomped on a good enough
sized area of it. Now here is where it got even funnier. If I recall correctly
when it first started I made it home from work and was then allowed a snow day
the next day (this storm lasted 4 days.) The next day, however, I was scheduled
to take trauma call in one of the city’s hospitals. I received a phone call
that the National Guard would be by to pick me up. After double checking that
it was still 4+ feet deep outside the stoop of our walk-up townhouse, I put on
my scrubs and topped them off with my entire snowboarding suit – shoes, gloves,
goggles and all. I mentioned I’m from GA,
right – not Minnesota or Montana. I don’t do snow for long periods of time and
resent it when I’m forced into it rather than choosing to go for recreational
purposes. So…all dressed up, I hear one of those megaphones calling for Dr.
Dixon to please step out. I opened the door and there was a humvee in the
middle of the road – maybe 5 or 6 feet away from me. Standing on my stoop I
yelled back – how am I supposed to get to you when the snow is over my head?
Their practical reply was to jump into the snow near enough to them and raise
my hands over my head. Once completed, they would pull me up into the hummer.
It actually worked. I’m sure I looked ridiculous, and somebody should’ve filmed
the whole thing, but it worked nonetheless. From there it was off to a police
station where the roads had been cleared down to just a few inches – a place
for me to await my next escort to the hospital – a very nice policeman. Once at
the hospital he did remind me that I’d be stuck at the hospital until normal
transportation – walking, buses, a friend picking me up by car once the roads
cleared – could be arranged. In other words: now, instead of being snowed in at
home, you are snowed into this hospital. Great. Fortunately it wasn’t too busy
– and obviously, there were other of us residents snowed in there. We mostly
did rounds and scut work then moped about the workroom complaining about being
stuck and bored. We didn’t have many exciting traumas or surgeries during that
time, so we were able to get sleep and catch up on dictations and such.
Finally, after 48 hours or so, several fresh residents made it in, and I was
able to get a lift home.
After Baltimore, it was off to Portland, OR. For the first
few years I lived there the winters were ok. We had one snowfall my first
Christmas there that kept the roads pretty sketchy for a week or so (takes
longer to melt out there.) I think it was only a few inches then. A few other
winters we got some light snow, maybe sleet, but it wasn’t so bad. Most of my
snow experience was driving up to Mount Hood to snowboard. The great thing
about that is Mt Hood is only 45 minutes away. That means, I can drive in and
drive out in the same day. Obviously, they usually had very deep amounts of
snow the higher you drive, however, they also were accustomed to this and did a
good job keeping the roads fairly cleared. I should mention: the whole state had mandatory
times/places where you must have either snow tires or chains on your regular
tires. That really prevented many mishaps. I enjoyed being able to go see it
when I wanted to and keep out of it when I didn’t want to be in it.
The first really annoying snowstorm I think of when
considering Portland is one that happened – I guess winter 2005/2006. It nearly
shut the whole city down. Of course, I was needed at the hospital. Well, this
particular hospital is on one of the highest hills in Portland – and its roads
were definitely inaccessible to regular vehicles. Fortunately, the city had
managed to keep most of the trains and trolleys running. Even more fortunate was
the fact that the hospital had just completed this giant tram that like a
closed in ski lift transported patients and staff from the bottom of the hill
to the top – opening inside the hospital itself.
(It was originally put in to help with parking congestion up
on the hill, but turned out to be a lifesaver during this storm.) So…I would
get up, walk to the nearest train; switch over to a trolley; and take the tram
up to work each day (unless of course I had spent the night in the hospital on
call.) Lots of fun those commutes…but we survived.
Another annoying snowstorm occurred in 2008/2009’s winter in
Oregon. I was commuting about 30-60 minutes each way for work at a hospital
further south. This was the area’s worst storm since 1968 – dropping 24 inches
of snow in a day or so December 2008. As you can see,some drifts were significantly higher:
One of the idiosyncrasies of this state is for environmental
purposes they do not believe in salting the roads for de-icing. Of course, they
aren’t going to use any other potentially harmful chemicals, either. The
alternative: rocks. That’s right, they dump clumps of sand, dirt and, yes,
rocks all over the roads – especially the interstate. Whether it’s during the
storm or after, you can almost guarantee that one of those rocks is gonna hit your
windshield. So… besides having a nightmare commute at 5am on poorly cleared
roads, I also contended with rocks hitting my windshield. I can’t count how
many times I’ve had my windshield “patched up” with that li’l glue stuff they
use (I currently have two fill-ins in this windshield), but I can tell you that
I went through 5 total windshield replacements in 4 years. The windshield
repair guys just set up in parking lots and in front of gas stations – they’ll
even drive to where you are. Their business is booming in that state.
Now, after moving from Portland, I spent time in Florida and
Georgia, so I had a reprieve from the snow. Then…I moved to Charlotte, NC. It
is truly a gorgeous city – green and lush from spring to fall. This winter,
however, has proven to be a bear. I was a bit disappointed when it was so cold
my hair gel froze each time I walked from the building to my vehicle, but a
week later when it started to snow… oh my… The governor declared a state of
emergency and called out the National Guard. The last moment I dared brave
driving, there were wrecks all around, and I fishtailed at every stoplight and
turn – and that was with 4-wheel drive. I swore I wasn’t going back out there.
And then work called. :~( Fortunately, a very kind man agreed to drop me off.
That was wonderful. I need to make a note
here that I am currently working at a restaurant. The restaurant was
out-of-control that night. There were only 5 of us. Normally, there’d be 5-6 in
the kitchen; 1-2 expo’ing; 5-6 waitstaff; 1-3 bartenders; 1-2 hostesses; 2-4
bussers; 1-2 dishwashers and a manager or two. That’s conservatively in the
17-20+ range. There were 5 of us. We knocked it out – but it was crazy. There
were 2 chefs, 1 manager, 1 busser and me expo’ing. Well, as you can imagine,
that’s not how we ran it. There were 5 people who did everything from cooking
to washing dishes to cleaning to bussing to serving to bartending to answering
the phones to delivering room service (there's a hotel next door)to answering the
phones to taking out the garbage…you get the idea. I think each of us did just
about every job in that restaurant at one point or another. We kinda fell into
areas that we mostly stuck to, but we were frequently pulled around to all
those others if only for a few minutes at a time. We succeeded, though. The
final part to this story is that I could not find a ride home, so I walked. The
snow on the ground was only 2 or so inches…but it was sleeting rain. I actually
got wind burn on my face during that 1 ½ - 2 mile walk back, and I was, of
course, completely soaked through all my many layers of clothing. I was grateful to have a safe, dry, warm place to go...
I reckon in conclusion, I’ll simply say this. I am a
Southerner. I will always be a Southerner – no matter where I am – because it’s
who I am.
And I don’t like snow.
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