Memory Lane

The photo is of my dear former parish in the aftermath of the blizzard of 2007. I post it because I don't have a photo from the actual event which I am going to recall....

Some Saturday night many years ago, about 10.30, I went over to the church to check the furnace, and do any last preparations for Sunday morning. But when I got to the front of the church, I could no way open the door because some clever (!) people had dug up all the snow and created a ramp from the porch down the steps onto the driveway. The top of the ramp went as high as the doorknobs. All I can figure is they had their sleds and would go screaming down this artificially-made hill, take a sharp right-hand turn and soar down the driveway to the road. Problem was, by the time I got there, the snow had hardened into ice. So at that late hour, unable otherwise to gain access to the church, I was hacking away with a flat bladed shovel, pitching the snow to the side (and cursing the people who had done this). The choir director, who was out walking his dog, saw me doing this, now at 11.00 at night, dropped the dog off at his house just around the corner and helped me finish shovelling it all out. The next day I asked the altar guild person what time she had been at the church and we determined the ramp had been constructed after sunset.

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This recollection is prompted by the following ditty in the police report from the old town local paper:

7.03 a.m. Unlawful Mischief — Police received a complaint from the high school that someone had buried all the entrace ways to the school under several feet of snow during the night time hours making it impossible to gain entry until the snow was removed. The principal stated he thought it was a senior prank and that no damages had occurred to the building.

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Some things never change. When you've got all this snow, you've got to do something with it...

except down here in the tropics, it is melting big time and I actually can see bare ground. Ugh.