Snow Day, 1967

 

Mine was just like that one, and would have gone there! That is in France.

        In view of how sultry the weather has been lately, since it’s Summer in America, I thought it might be refreshing to post a story about a snow day. It’s a true story. It happened back in 1967 around Christmas.
        It was one of those winters like we used to have. It was below freezing for weeks at a time. We had quite a bit of snow back then. There have been many green winters since then, and a few white ones too. Sometimes ice a full six inches thick would form on the pond down in the pasture where we used to play and ice skate a little.
       I must have been home from my classes at the community college in Everett. Back then it was called a junior college. But my younger siblings still had some school days before Christmas.
        It had snowed during the night and it had stuck. Not a lot of snow, but enough to keep most people from driving, since we lived in a hilly area between three small cities.
        My parents had both gone to work that day. So, I had the only vehicle, my Renault 4CV. It was like a bug, but smaller and lighter and cheaper. It was a real lawnmower car. Men laughed at it on the street. However, it was good on snow and ran super cheap.
        The buses were not running maybe, or maybe I just decided that it would be fun to run the two younger ones to the junior high in Kenmore. My next youngest sister must have made different arrangements to get to her high school. She didn’t ride with us that day.
        I had my snow routes. By driving way around the long way I could avoid steep hills, or even much of an incline. I decided that I didn’t need to get dressed. I would do the run in my long flannel nightgown. This was rash, but I was probably 18 years old.
        Back then, as you know, if something happened you were on your own unless someone took pity on you. No phone! I may not have even brought my wallet? Who knows what the child was thinking, or not?
        The drive to the junior high went fine. We went around the long way, and I got them there on time. I always have enjoyed the slight challenge of snow driving. I liked playing it like a game of strategy, seeing if I could do it and get back to where I started.
        As I remember it, the sun was shining on the new snow, which highlighted all the details of the landscape in fresh bright wintry fashion. I found this quite jolly. I’m always happier when there is snow on the ground. This has not changed.
        I drove toward the house by the same route I had left. It all went fine until I got to a level spot, oddly. I was within a mile of home when I slid into a ditch. It was enough of a ditch that I couldn’t weasel my way out of it.
        Oh dear! And there I was in my silly nightgown.
    I got out of the car and stood there wondering what to do next. Should I walk home? Wait for my dad to come home and pull it out?
        The Book says that sometimes angels appear, and they did!
        Across the street there was a new housing development being built. Work was going on right at that moment. I have to assume that some of the carpenters saw my little accident because two big strong carpenters came over, laughing at me in my nightie and my silly little car in the ditch. They really didn’t say anything. They just picked it in their hands and pulled it up to where I could get enough purchase to drive away. Then they went laughing back to their job on the new house they were building.
        I drove home. No harm was done. The Lord helps goofy girls I guess. Actually, that has been proven to me a lot of times. Also, I never went to town in my nightgown again.
        The buses were running in the afternoon, so the kids came home by bus and all was well.
        School buses look pretty cool coming through the snow. Everything looks pretty cool coming through the snow! And a snow day is a wonderful thing!

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