Not Many Memories...Of Getting Stuck In The Snow

Two days ago I sat in my office and watched as a White Pontiac slid down a snow-covered field and stopped, unable to continue. It was, in a word, stuck. The two teenagers in the car were also, in a word, stuck.

In a way, it brought back memories to when I was a teenager.

But, in another way, it didn't.

I grew up about an hour south of where we now live. The climate is pretty much the same and was most likely the same forty some years ago when I was learning to drive both in the snow and not in the snow. Here's where it gets weird. I don't remember getting stuck in the snow a lot. It helped I drove a VW Beetle, one of the best cars in the snow. Plus, I think they did not plow the roads as much back then. Yes, there were fewer cars on the road, but you would think with poorer driving conditions people would get stuck more often.

This is where I wonder if my memory is as reliable as I think it is. You know how older people (of which I now feel being a part...) will tell the young'ins about how life was back in the good old days? Are they just making stuff up? Are they embellishing? Or, are they relating facts as they really were? I think about this when I'm trying to remember what it was like as a teenager driving a car in snowy conditions.

Back to the present--I watched for a while as the two teenagers tried getting the Pontiac unstuck. They were unsuccessful. After a bit, when it was obvious they needed help, I called out to my youngest and we set out to give them a push. They must have called a friend because as we left out house a big Ford pickup truck drove up. I thought he might tow them out, but instead, all of us got behind the car and freed it from its frozen prison.

I wonder if in the future those teenagers will remember the time they drove down a field in January and required the help of strangers (and possibly a friend...) to get them unstuck. Then again, will those hearing the story believe them..?

 

Absolutely LOVE The Snow...However

Living in an area of seasons brings with it the good and the bad. We live in an amazing climate where all four seasons are represented. Of the four, summer is my least favorite, followed by spring, then winter, and at last autumn. Many people I know and who here hate winter.

I love it.

I love the snow, I love the lack of pollen in the air, I love that yard work is not expected. Sure, there's some things that aren't the best--the pollution in the inversions is not only ugly, but unhealthy and even dangerous.

Then, there's driving in the snow.

I've lived on our hill for decades. I think I can count on both hands the times I wasn't able to get my car up the hill to our house. Today was one of those days. We had a storm that actually hit last night. It began with rain--this morning it started to snow. I didn't realize until I headed down the hill on my way to church (by the way, two-hour church is, well, heavenly...) just how slick it was under the newly fallen snow. The failure of my car to stop was my first clue.

The snow fell heavily while we worshiped, and I hoped the roads would be plowed when time came to go home. They were plowed, but not enough. I got within thirty feet of my goal of level road when the car would not go farther. I ended up going backwards until I got the the level road below ours. I parked the car and waited for the snowplow to make another pass. 

I knew my tires weren't the best. They're not completely bald, but I thought as I tried and tried to will my car up the hill that if I only had new tires, I'd be okay. When I walked down to try again, I saw the huge snowplow spin its tires as it tried to crest the hill. I knew then that this was not a normal storm and the roads were not normally slick. This was unusual and new tires might not have even helped.

Right now, my little car is parked off the street at our house. Yes, winter in the mountains can be a pain at times, but to me, it's worth putting up with the bad because the good is so great.