Snow Days and Gloves

Who doesn't love a snow day? I know growing up, I did!  To be fair, we had to have near blizzard conditions to get one, which made getting one that rare diamond...well, in the snow.  I recall my teenage years having to deliver newspapers in eight inches of snow, then trodding through it to get to school.  They were few and far between.  The pictured storm is not that storm.  The earliest one that I can recall was spent at home with both mom and dad. I remember watching out the window while dad inspected some built up snow around the bumper of our 1983 Chevy Silverado.  When he tried to move the pickup the snow was so packed that the 2wd behemoth wouldn't move in the driveway.  It was a medium blue/silver two tone single cab with a long bed and a camper shell.  I always made dad promise me that he would let me have that truck one day (didn't happen).  We spent the better part of the morning piling snow from the driveways and then playing with the neighbors until we were too tired to move.

Does anyone remember the Blizzard of '82?  If you at the least know the reference, you know where I hail from!  I was about five years old on December 25th, 1982, so I admittedly do not remember much.  I remember that the snow was so deep that the pictures couldn't give it justice.  I recount tales of others that the center of the street we lived on was so full of snow that it drifted up to three feet deep. 

 

I recall stories of my dad spending the whole day trying to dig our cars out, and knowing him I imagine he shoveled more than just his yard on that snowstorm.  Mom recalls him taking his old Wagner Equipment Service truck and running up and down the street that day in an attempt to help the neighbors get to the top of the street because the snowplows never came.  If you knew my dad, you know he was successful.

 

It also made me remember what are arguably my "best" pair of snow gloves ever, and certainly are my longest lasting pair of gloves.  I remember them well because, well, I still have them.  You see, my dad wasn't one to intentionally go out and buy me specific or even higher quality items while I was growing up.  I was well known for burning through a pair of shoes about every three months.  Boys high tops were not so cheap in the 80's/90's, and then I had the kind of feet that needed "extra support."  The result was that the shoe budget usually destroyed my chances at finer clothing options.  No one's fault but my own!  I remember this pair of gloves, and still have this pair, largely because they were not the cheapest pair of gloves dad had gotten me, but just the fact that he bought me a pair!  Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a pauper as a child, but we were a family with three kids so we had to make ways to make things last.  If I remember these correctly, I got this pair of gloves in my early teens, and I am 43 now.  I think it is safe to say that they are at minimum 30 years old.  After all that time, there is a rip in the right hand and one of the fingertips has worn through.  Not a bad pair of gloves, and they still keep your hands warm and dry, even after all this time.