Better Days: “Old Fashioned Winter” Sweeps T-County with “Excitement”

  • By Teri Stein
  • February 24, 2014
  • 499
                        
Summary: A new old surprise could make this “Old Fashioned Winter” bearable for one fan of a certain vintage snow shovel. This winter has been one like no other that we have had in recent memory. Our “Old Fashioned Winter” is like the kind of winters we had when I was a child, the kind of winter where the snow starts falling in November and doesn’t quit until late March. This “Old Fashioned Winter” has been so “fun-filled” and “exciting” that I don’t know how much more of this “excitement” that I can stand. It’s “exciting” when you lose traction and spin your car into the guard rail like one of my nephews did. It’s really “exciting” when you get the bill for that damage. My husband, Joe, and I thought it was very “exciting” when we nearly missed hitting a bicyclist going the wrong way in traffic as she slipped and slid around the roadway. Actually, I felt my stomach fill with rocks when I saw her coming our way and with all the snow there was nowhere for anyone to go to get out of the way. Unless you were privileged to stay indoors the entire season, I’m sure you have your own “exciting” story about our “Old Fashioned Winter.” Do you feel as “fortunate” as I to have had the extra practice time this winter to hone your safe driving skills on snow covered roads while at the same time observing all the motorists stranded in their cars along the berm? The snow, the freezing rain, the artic temperatures, the floods, the icy sidewalks and roadways, the cavernous pot holes, the wondering if you would make it through to the winter without breaking a bone, it’s all so “exciting!” However, there was one good thing to come out of this winter. Flashback to the 1970’s, I discovered I really liked to shovel snow. Back in the 70’s they knew how to build a good snow shovel. The shovel part was made of sturdy aluminum and the handle was either a nice solid metal tube or wood with a plastic handle on the end. In my younger days, I used to shovel every sidewalk in the neighborhood before going to work! (Now, after a few decades, most of the neighbors are younger than me and they are on their own.) Then one year my favorite shovel disappeared and in its place was one of those new improved snow shovels which had a wide blade made of what felt like cast iron. It was called a pusher shovel. I could barely move the thing! A few days later another pusher shovel with a wide plastic blade appeared. This was not an improvement in situations where there is too much snow to push. If you need to shovel dry snow it just slides off the pusher shovel blade. If you need to shovel wet snow on that wide blade it’s so heavy you can barely lift it. With all the snow this winter I was still actively mourning the loss of my old aluminum snow shovel. Then, in the ultimate surprise, after arriving at home recently I found the Holy Grail of snow shovels – a vintage 1970’s era snow shovel – leaning against our kitchen cabinet! It had been lovingly restored by Joe to its shiny aluminum brilliance and its wooden handle stained a warm brown. I couldn’t have been happier! More snow anyone?


Loading next article...

End of content

No more pages to load