Sunday night it started snowing and blowing; by Monday morning the temperature was down in the low twenties, setting a new record, and there were little drifts of snow along the hedge and in the ditches. This simply does not happen in the Willamette Valley.
It actually wasn't that much snow, maybe an inch. Ben came in from getting the newspaper, all astonished. "It's so weird! Some places on the sidewalk there's no snow, and then some places there's several inches!" I thought, how can a child who was born in Canada be so ignorant about the effect of wind on powdery snow?
The weather basically shut everything down. There were lots of accidents in the area, and a lot more further north toward Portland, where the roads were much worse.
Paul was across the mountain so we had lots of calls back and forth and to various ones already out on the road regarding should we have school or not. Those who grew up in colder climes generally said it wouldn't be a problem to drive to school; the natives weren't interested in going anywhere. But the kids really needed to practice for the program, so we started school at 11:00, and I drove the school van in, all my Minnesotan instincts coming into play because the roads were not nice at all--packed snow here and ice there and lots of places where you couldn't tell what was underneath you.
I left the children at school and came home and called my mom just to chat. You may recall that Mom and Dad still live in Minnesota, and Mom is 88 and Dad 92. "It's 17 below this morning," Mom said cheerfully. "But we're staying nice and warm. Yesterday it was really blowing snow and ice, so we had to really be careful driving to church."
I think my mom would have driven that school van without a second thought.
Quote of the Day:
[in a conversation around Thanksgiving]
"It was so nice this week. I even went out and washed the car. And Dad spent the last two days out in the barn fixing up his rabbit hutches. [chuckle] He has a new business--raising rabbits!"
--Mom
We western Oregonians may not have as much snow nor such low temps as other states, but what we have tends to be more treacherous drive on when we do have it.
ReplyDeleteI remember going to Bible School and humming along the freeway at the legal speed limit...passing everybody else, natives included.
And why not?
After driving Oregon's infrequent wintry roads, what they had to offer was as solid as a rock.
So there you are.
:-)
Dont agree mark. :) The roads the other day were a piece of cake compared to the roads in "snow country."
ReplyDeleteYea, I agree with Anonymous. I grew up where it gives "real" winter, too, and what we have here is not. The reason it's more treacherous to drive out here is because hardly anyone has any idea what they are doing or haow they should be doing it! But I love it anyway!
ReplyDeleteAmen..fellow anonymous.
ReplyDeleteWell, Mark. Before you commented I had just told one of my daughters that when we lived in Canada, it was the new voluntary-service guys from the South who were always the most cavalier drivers on ice and snow, to the terror of us experienced folks.
ReplyDelete:D
ReplyDelete