TheBanyanTree: Winter Wind

[NancyIee at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/24/2007 10:03:59 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
margaretkramer at comcast.net writes:

One of  our weather people was saying this storm would be like the  Halloween
Blizzard of 1991


I remember that one.  My children were small, waiting for Halloween  and 
going out for Trick and Treat. Of course, when it started snowing and  blowing, 
there was no way I was going to drive them around door-to-door. Rather,  
farm-to-farm, since we lived out in the hinterlands then.  The hills out  there I 
would never be able to climb in the slick stuff, and I didn't want my  children 
out gathering candy in a blizzard. They whined, of course, but I had my  
priorities, just as they had theirs.  Safety and cowardice vs candy and  candy.
 
But, in the heart of it, when the snow was drifting and the thermometer was  
going down, I was looking out the window toward the growing drifts, the 
whiteout  over the lake.  Down our country road, out of the clouds of blowing snow,  
came my neighbor on his John Deere tractor. Behind the tractor, he was towing 
a  hay wagon.
 
Now what . . . ?
 
Then, I saw that the hay wagon was piled high with hay, naturally, but  
bouncing about and playing in the hay was the neighbor's grandchildren, other  
neighboring kids, and they turned into our driveway.
 
My own children went berserk, diving into snowsuits, boots, hats, scarves,  
grabbing their candy bags. Out  the door they ran, climbing up into the  piled 
hay.
 
That neighbor took them to every farm around the lake, and back to his  place 
where his wife had hot chocolate and other treats and games for  them.
 
Then, starting up the old tractor again, he took every one of them  home.
 
We had more than two feet of snow that night, with drifts to cover our  
pickup and sedan. The driveway was drifted for two days, the schools closed for  
three. It was the most marvelous and memorable Halloween  ever.
<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free 
email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free from AOL at 
http://www.aol.com.