Neighborhood Snow

Snow covered the porch, down to the rocking chairs sitting tidily next to one another, as if beckoning someone to sit on their cushion of snow. Down the street came shouts of children laughing as the dark clouds overhead pelted them with snow. As far down the street to the right as I could see, pines, oaks, maples and other tall trees folded and bent under the load of snow they carried, which grew heavier by the hour. With the trees obscuring the road from view, I could only imagine the picture of children running with their multi-colored plastic and old-fashioned wooden sleds only to throw the sleds on the icy snow packed road and just as quickly throw themselves on top of the sliding sleds for a quick, windy journey to the bottom of the hill.

In front of the house, more children had congregated: five in one ditch and four in the other on the other side of the road. Any car unlucky enough to drive up or down the snow covered street would drive into the middle of a snowball war. Snow drifted down in big wet, fluffy flakes; perfect for packing large snowballs. Above the snowballing corps, the clouds seemed to touch even the shortest chimney. Two sisters, one age four, the other at least 13, rolled a big, pine-straw sprinkled snowball around in the front yard, leaving a track of almost green grass. To the far left of the yard, two more such snowballs sat on top of each other to: the beginnings of a snowman.

Up at the top of the street, near the big road, a snow plow attached to a Bobcat moved slowly up and down the top half of the street, staying clear of snowballing youth. People stepped out of their doors looking with dismay at the accumulation of snow on their driveway that could only mean a second cup of coffee before coming out and shoveling the walk and drive. A young couple had their chubby, six month old baby and camera out in the white cold, eager to catch on film the baby's startled expressions turn to glee when the wet, white flakes melted on his mittens. Young, vivacious children ran all up and down the street while the older, less capricious persons sat on their swept-clean porches enjoying the scene before their old, wise eyes.