As I sit here this morning listening to the radio advising motorist to stay of the roads, RCMP reporting whiteouts, Government garage reporting plows are off the roads until the wind drops. It seems like an never ending story of the winter blahs!!! We are out of bread and probably a few other items and I need a haircut, but neither hair or groceries will happen today. This makes me think back the good old snow storm of yore. I recall on Christmas Eve 1969 Caroline and I arrived on PEI to spend Christmas with Linda and her family. Caroline and I waited at a friends home in Charlottetown until Linda finished work. She was working day shift at the Island Phone Co, finishing at 4 pm when we planned to drive to South Rustico. The snow started that morning, slow at first but gradually building, by noon it was a full blown snow storm and by the time Linda finished work we were going nowhere. On Christmas morning we set out in my trusty (some would say rusty) old Austin for South Rustico. The Rustico Road wasn’t plowed so we headed to Hunter River and then on to hwy 13, but again the Bungay and Stead roads were not plowed, so near and yet so far. It was back to Charlottetown for Christmas day and lengthy explanations to Caroline (5 years old) that Santa too had been delayed by the weather. Not an easy explanation as Santa didn’t need to use the roads!!! however, we settled on poor visibility when landing on roof tops with heavy snow on them. We finally arrived at the farm on Boxing day morning and celebrated our late Christmas. Linda’s father called me out to the barn to see his cow giving birth. Something a city boy like me had never seen, it was not pleasant to watch but the calf survived and Linda’s dad reached over head and produced a brown paper bag with a pint neck sticking out at the top. I had a much needed drink, of what I’m not sure, rum? maybe Rye could have been something else, but it did warm my frozen bones.
Now back to the present, but its worse than the past with no mystery brown paper bag bottle to take the edge off. The good old days eh!!!!
Roll on Spring!!!!
God Bless and keep reading
irishroversbooks.wordpress.com 