It's Gonna SNOW!!!
Posted: Thursday, December 03, 2009
by Richard Vail
Chisel & Plane
Here in Maryland, at the merest hint of snow, people panic. They rush out to the grocery store and buy 24 rolls of toilet paper, 5 gallons of milk and 10 gallons of water...why? I haven't a clue. If we get flurries, businesses and schools close. Forget driving, you're taking your life into your hands by getting out on the roads. They're aren't the best of driver in perfect weather..."oh leaf blew across the road, must hammer on my brakes!", or my favorite...getting to the top of the freeway on ramp only to see some moron has STOPPED! because "he can't merge into traffic".
That was the year my daughter was born in north Florida, we had a genuine winter storm. It lasted a good 24 hours and arrived on December 23, 1989. Where I lived in Tallahassee, we received six inches of snow. SIX! IN FLORIDA NO LESS! What's even funnier, is where my parents lived, in Panama City on the Gulf Coast, they got eight...I have some great pictures of the rug rat in a too big snow suit lumbering around the front yard...my neighbor, spent most of the day making a snowman. Of course all the kids on the street had their picture taken next to it.
I had a blast that night (at the time I was managing a Dominos Pizza) I made far more money pulling people out of ditches "...oh honey, let's go look at all the pretty liiiights..." (picture airhead saying this). Now , you'd expect that in Florida, but here in Maryland, where is does indeed snow every winter...you get much the same reaction. I was lucky, I lived in Michigan for several years and took the trouble to learn how to drive in snow...my prescription? Find a large empty parking lot and do donuts, etc to learn how my truck acted on slippery pavement. That thought doesn't seem to have occurred to many people here though.
So, living off of a rather busy road, I'm genuinely looking forward to the antics of my neighbors this weekend. It should be highly amusing!
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)they should come to Colorado for a time,eh? thanks for an enjoyable piece. MarijoIt would be amusing to transport by magic 100 maryland drivers to CO...just to see the bumper cars!Well, with all the military bases in Colorado Springs and all those personnel who have never seen snow - it is like that here anyhow about the frist snow - they think with 4X4 they are indestructible - and forget that brakes on ice are brakes on ice....LOL, yeah, but here the 1st snow is EVERY TIME IT SNOWS!
The first snow is always fun times. Luckily I live in a generally snow bound area, but people still do forget what driving on the stuff is like every year. Best of luck managing the roads this winter.Thanks for reading this colin, but this is what it's like here EVERY TIME IT THREATENS to snow...not just when it snows...lol. I love snow...but then I've only had to start shoveling it in the past 8 years. I'm sure that makes the difference.
Got a few chuckles out of this one- I can identify with it- sounds exactly like what happens here (Houston) Well, it's fun for the kids... you shouldn't have called that poor woman an airhead! LOLIt was merely a rhetorical device...but seriously people in Maryland just can't drive. If a leaf blows across the road, they hit the brakes. At the top of an on pramp onto a freeway...if they decide no one will let them in THEY STOP! (instead of what most "normal" people would do, like use the up & down pedal and go FASTER!) though, it's not quite as rough as Boston, where driving is viewed as a contact sport.
Richard, great article, I'm from San Diego, California and it absolutely never snows here, in fact it hardly ever even rains anymore it seems like. The first time I experienced a blizzard was in New York when my flight back home got canceled and I had to wait until the blizzard ended before I could fly back home. It was beautiful, but aggrivating.LOL, I had my first blizzard a long time ago, 1969/70...we 20' snow drifts on our street and were snowed in for 2 weeks...had a blast jumping out the 3rd floor windows into the snow...parents freaked out... Here in MD...even flurries are cause for panic. Having learned how to drive in the stuff after I married a Michigan woman and saw real snow...from Dec till April. MD is amusing! thanks for coming by. I appreciate your comments and taking the time to say so!
Hi Richard. Thanks for this amusing story. I can relate. It's like when it rains here in CA, people forget how to drive. It rained on Monday - by 2:00 pm there were a reported 100 accidents. I do hope you can get at least one portion of a snowman put together with all those flurries you are expecting. Very well written and fun. Nice.Thanks for coming by and commenting. I can see how people there would be disconcerted by rain...after all "...it never rains in Southern California..."exactly :-)
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