A Stormy New England Winter

To look back at the last full week of January is to see ourselves on tippy-toes, our necks bent and heads tilted.

We needed to crane and twist to see above and around snowbanks — and still do.

Whether we were edging out of driveways in cars or preparing to cross those same streets on foot our sight lines were often blocked. 

The snow drifts, snow piles and snow mounds remain impressive. 

Snow heaps in shopping plaza parking lots are mountainous.

Roads have grown thin, hemmed at the edges by snow.

Public Works Director Gino Cresta said after the last storm dropped another 10 inches on the town that plow crews were running out of places to push the snow.

To look back at the last full week of January is to re-hear the rumble and rasp of snow plows and shovels as they pounded and scraped over snow, ice and pavement.

We heard or took part in conversation in restaurants, banks and coffee shops that inevitably pushed toward storm forecasts. 

At some point, accumulation joined the mix of topics.

Recited like baseball scores, even football scores, in reverse, they  referred to snow in inches.

“4 to 6 , 8 to 12, 16 to 20."

Many of those who can remember the Blizzard of '78 returned in their conversations again and again to the storm that was measured with a yardstick and fooled many forecasters.

If nothing else, all this snow reminds us where we live, a place with changing seasons and changeable weather.

Where you sometimes need to get on your tippy-toes or to look around the snowbank to see where you are going.