The East

With some food in store, electricity, and nowhere in particular to go, those in the east might be able to appreciate nature's fury and maybe even see the beauty of it.  But when you subtract food and/or electricity, the storm is something altogether different.  It is terrifying.

In 1950 Ohio got blitzed by a huge snow storm.  I'm not going to be one of those people who start telling stories of how high the drifts were, because I have proof -- black and white pictures of my brother and I out in the driveway.  The piles of snow around us are almost as tall as we were.  My dad is using the wrong kind of shovel (that wouldn't be the first time) but somehow the job got done.  He missed a couple of days of work, as I've been told, because even when he got us dug out, the roads were impassable.  School must have been closed for several days, although I was too young to know about that.

Two years later as a first grader, I was trudging back and forth to school (including lunch).  It seemed like a LONG walk to me, especially when it snowed and folks didn't shovel their sidewalk.  One day I was just so tired I could not go on a step further and I just more or less plopped into a snow pile by one house.  The lady who lived there saw me and she rushed out to help, "Oh, honey.  We've got to get you warmed up."  She took me into her very neat house and made me hot chocolate which she served in a pretty china cup. 

I was enjoying my conversation with her and the hot chocolate, and actually didn't care if I ever returned to school, but she did, "I think maybe you ought to start heading towards home.  Your mother will be worried about you."  So I finished the walk to my house and had lunch.  My mother hadn't really noticed that I was late.  Then after lunch, I bundled up and started the long walk back to school.  Part of the reason that walk was so difficult was that I was by myself for the first couple of years of school.  When my two friends ( a year younger) who lived close by joined in, it must have made things better because I don't remember the walks anymore.  Funny how selective our memories are!!  Amazing how having company lightens the load.

Well, our prayers go out to the east coast residents, and especially the people who were already so affected by Hurricane Sandy.  And if we have a little extra, maybe a donation to a charity helping in that effort would be a good idea.

See you Tuesday.  Karen