Ice and Cold and Snow

The first days of winter weather have finally settled into Western Pennsylvania. The ice, cold, and snow have been flirting with sunshine and warm days until now. Winter has suddenly become serious. The northwestern wind has blown in thick snow clouds and bitter-cold temperatures from Canada and the Arctic. Several days ago, I saw a flock of geese racing southward ahead of the frigid air. Their loud honking harsh in the quiet evening sky as they passed overhead. Their yearly calling has always left me with a sad and lonely feeling as they make their retreat. The flock’s fading voices overhead somehow made the entire area seem emptier.

I can remember as a school age child walking the 150 yards to the weathered wooden bus shanty. Often I would have to clamber over a thick ridge of ice and snow deposited by the snowplows of the road crew left from clearing the highway. I would stand inside with several friends to avoid the worst of the wind and cold. We would huff thick puffs of steam from our breaths, sometimes pretending we were smoking.

The wait-time would often be 15 or 20 minutes until the yellow and black school bus lumbered into view. The brakes would screech as the behemoth came to a stop. The flashing red light at the front and rear of the bus, top and bottom would halt other vehicles. When the bus came to a complete stop, the driver would open the rubber-edged, wing-like, windowed doors with a harsh squealing sound. Single file we would climb the metal steps to the relative warmth inside.

Kids from three different homes gathered inside the bus shanty on school days waiting to be rescued from the cold. When we went outside, we were bundled in layers of warm sweaters, scarves, toboggan hats, gloves or mittens, boots, and thick coats.

It is different today. Students are collected from each house as the bus makes multiple stops. I’ve watch as high school kids clad in shorts and a “hoodies” jacket stroll from inside a warm house, across a small front yard, and climb aboard the waiting bus. They don’t run. That would ruin their image of “coolness.” Their leg hairs would have frozen off if they would have had to wait in a bus shanty like I did.

As a child I never minded the snow. Sometimes, I actually enjoyed it, especially when the snow was deep and caused a school cancellation. But the cold is a different story. I didn’t like the cold. There were times I can recall the inside of my nostrils sticking together when I took a deep breath. I can’t remember that there were ever any delays for the starting time. It was all or nothing event; either it was school or no school.