Saturday, October 29, 2011
A Halloween snow
An accumulating snowfall here from a nor'eastern. It's sticking now at 1 pm so I suppose it'll keep sticking right up through night. Not just unusual, but in my memory unprecedented in this part of Jersey. I don't recall many specific snows by year, but I remember two substantial April snows, & even one brief early May dusting when I lived in Linden NJ in the '80s. Light snows around Thanksgiving surprise no one, & we've had early December snowstorms. A Halloween snow? The ocean water temps off Jersey are still in the high fifties F.
***
I was walking back from 7-11, light wet snow, little wind, sloppy sidewalks. I wore my thick, ugly leather shoes with the heavy treads - shoes I have just for this kind of weather; my winter parka & a WFMU knit cap, no great hardship. As I approached my building, the little Hispanic man from the first floor was floundering around on the sidewalk. Same gray thin jacket he always wears, same thin pants, I know he's had knee joint problems. He was holding a foil-wrapped sandwich. I took the sandwich, steadied him by the arm, & he got to his feet. This fellow also drinks, although I can't tell the difference when he does. I handed him his sandwich & said, "I guess you're going inside, too." He said, "I'm going to the store," which at the hour could only be Bruno's Pizza, one block around the corner, or more likely, 7/11, two long blocks up a mostly unshoveled hill littered with tree limbs. I don't know what he wanted there or why he was bringing the sandwich along. But I knew I wasn't gonna walk it with him at .25 mph. There's a lot of people going in & out of apt buildings all along that route. If he falls down again, he won't be down long. Decision won't win me sainthood, but you gotta make some judgment calls.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
***
I was walking back from 7-11, light wet snow, little wind, sloppy sidewalks. I wore my thick, ugly leather shoes with the heavy treads - shoes I have just for this kind of weather; my winter parka & a WFMU knit cap, no great hardship. As I approached my building, the little Hispanic man from the first floor was floundering around on the sidewalk. Same gray thin jacket he always wears, same thin pants, I know he's had knee joint problems. He was holding a foil-wrapped sandwich. I took the sandwich, steadied him by the arm, & he got to his feet. This fellow also drinks, although I can't tell the difference when he does. I handed him his sandwich & said, "I guess you're going inside, too." He said, "I'm going to the store," which at the hour could only be Bruno's Pizza, one block around the corner, or more likely, 7/11, two long blocks up a mostly unshoveled hill littered with tree limbs. I don't know what he wanted there or why he was bringing the sandwich along. But I knew I wasn't gonna walk it with him at .25 mph. There's a lot of people going in & out of apt buildings all along that route. If he falls down again, he won't be down long. Decision won't win me sainthood, but you gotta make some judgment calls.
Labels: Elizabeth NJ, weather
