Snow Anxiety

Sledding with the kids. My little guy is in my hiding in my lap.

I've heard lots of comments from now local Northerners laughing about how we Southerners seem to panic when a snowstorm threatens to come our way. I don't fully understand the rush for bread and milk, myself. Perhaps some folks fancy milk toast? For me, the anxiety is rooted in the memory of the Great Blizzard of 1993, (don't I sound so old and crotchety when I write that? Crotchety. That's one of those words that doesn't mean at all what they sound like.) Sorry, I'm off on another tangent. The Great Blizzard of 1993, when I was visiting my family while on Spring break from college (ever the wild child). Some Spring. Some break. I was snowed in with my dear parents, my little sister and our boyfriends (who bragged that their driving skills could handle the snow and that they'd be able to get home).  Twelve inches of snow of snow later, there we were. Stuck. Without power. For a week.

We had to melt snow on a kerosene stove to fill the toilet tank so it would flush. This was a constant chore, considering that there were six of us. We cooked grilled cheeses and Hot Pockets on that kerosene stove too. If it weren't for the fact that my grandparents lived next door and always had a store of home-canned vegetables from the garden, we would have ran out of food.We played board games and cards until we were sick of it and slept in sleeping bags around that stove.

These days, my anxiety about mucho snow/ice is the thought of school being cancelled for days on end that never end (like this week) with two kids suffering from cabin fever; in which case, I dash to the store for condensed sweet milk (for snow cream), cookie dough, videos, craft materials and wine (for me, of course) to get us through. Hallelujah, hot dog & glory in the morning! There's only a 2-hour delay today.

As for driving in the stuff, here's a great story with perspective from my hometown paper. Check it out. "Driving on Snow and Ice: North Versus South".