Susie in favorite winter coat 1961- Photo by Hugh Carberry
The next best thing to a hot, summer day is a Snow Day. All winter I pray every night before I went to bed. I would get down on my knees and pray. “Dear God please would bless all my pets. And then I would list them Sweetheart, Pretty Boy. These were my pet birds. And Big Shot and Skipper and Bandit, my hamsters. And then offer Naomi, one of our dogs and Strottles, a stray cat that I loved move than life itself. All of these animals are no longer alive, but I believed that I would see my beloved animals again once I too went to heaven.
I would squeeze my eyes tightly shut and pray and sometimes beg please, please God let it snow. Other children would ask God to bless the pagan babies because that was who the nuns told us to do. I wasn’t sure what pagan babies were, but I wanted snow more than anything at all, including pagan babies being blessed.
During the winter nights in the years, I attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School between 1957 and 1965. I prayed for snow. And during those eight years, we did get unbelievably amounts of snow. It was not unknown for it to snow twelve or more inches to fall overnight on top of the snow we received a week ago. The snow didn’t always melt in between snowstorms because it was too cold for it to melt. And I firmly believed in the power of prayer because every winter we were inundated with snow and sleet and wind so cold it took your breath away and all but froze your eyeballs.
And why you may wonder would I pray for snow? Well, the answer is simply this, Snow Days. And snow days meant if it snows enough, school will be canceled, and there was nothing I loved more than not having to go to school for a day. If we were lucky a couple of days.
I wake up and immediately look out my bedroom window to see if it snowed that night. It did. And low and behold it’s still snowing. I say a silent prayer of thanks.
I run down the steps and into the kitchen and scream at the top of my voice, “Ma, did they cancel school?”
“Yes, Susie, school is canceled. Stop screaming like a banshee.”
“Oh, hurrah, I’m going to get dressed and go outside and play.”
“What? No, you’re not. It isn’t even 7:30 yet. You’re going to go sit down and have a hot breakfast. Something that will stick to your ribs and keep you warm. And let your food digest, and then you can go out.”
“What? No, I’m not hungry I want to go out now before the snow melts.”
“The snow isn’t going to melt Susie. It’s extremely cold outside. It won’t melt. Go upstairs and put on your warm clothes and a sweater. And then you’ll eat, and then you can go out.”
I run up the steps two at a time and throw on two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks and a shirt and a sweater. I can hardly move. My dad is sitting at the table. “Why are you dressed like that, Susie?”
“Because it is snowing outside, and Mom told me to.” My dad never wears anything but a fake fur hat and a wool scarf around his neck. It doesn’t matter how cold it is outside or if it’s snowing. Hat and scarf, that’s it.
“Sit down, Susie. I have your breakfast ready. I will warm you up.”
My mom hands me a bowl of hot oatmeal. I hate hot oatmeal. But I know if I don’t eat it, she won’t let me go outside. I shovel it down as quickly as possible. It’s horrible and looks like vomit. But I eat it all the same. And my stomach is warm but nauseous.
“Thanks, Mom. Can I go outside now?”
“First, go brush your teeth.”
“What, brush my teeth?” Then I looked at my mom’s face and see she is getting a little annoyed at me. So, I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. As I come out of the bathroom, I walk over to the hall closet and grab my coat. It’s a little tight what with all the extra clothes. And then I grab the box on the shelf and look for two gloves that match. I stick them in the pockets. I cut through the swinging door from the hall to the living room and out the front door like a shot.
As I open the front door, the cold air slaps me in the face. It’s unbelievably cold. I pull my hood up over my head and tie the string under my chin tight and pull my wool scarf up to my nose. Wow, it’s so cold. I can’t believe it. My dad hasn’t shoveled the snow off the steps or sidewalk yet. So, I have to plow through. I realize I don’t have my boots on and turn around and go back into the house.
“I forgot my boots,” I yell at the top of my voice. I hear my father say, “ one day Susie is going to forget her head .”
I open up the cubby hole where we keep our boots and schoolbags and crawl in and start pulling out boots looking for a pair that will fit me. I find a pair. I think they are my sister’s, but they fit over my shoes. So, they probably won’t fit hers. And out the door, I go again. It’s a blizzard out there, but it doesn’t deter me. I plow through the snow down the steps once again. Snow goes inside the boots since it’s deeper than my boots are high. I continue pushing my way through the snow on our sidewalk and out our gate.
I turn right and head down toward my best friend’s house. She lives three doors away. It takes me a long time to get there. When I finally make it up to her house. I’m out of breath and believe it or not I’m sweating from the exertion of walking three houses away. I look at her sidewalk, and I see her sidewalk isn’t cleared yet either. I try calling her over and over as loud as I can. But she can’t hear me because of the wind. I’m about to leave when I see her waving at me through her front bedroom window. I see she is still wearing her pajamas. She probably just woke up. She is slow as molasses in the morning, and it takes her forever to get up and dressed and eat. I know she won’t be out any time soon.
I head back towards my house. I finally arrive. Snowflakes about the size of half-dollars are starting to fall in force, but I continue on my way. I decide to go to the church parking lot in the back of the church. That’s where kids always hang out when school is canceled because of snow. The front of the church and the sidewalk up to the church are shoveled. Mr. Preto, the janitor of the church and his brother, Mr. Preto, probably came out here early this morning and shoveled the steps and all the sidewalks going up to the church. So, the ladies that go to Mass every day could get to church. My mother is one of the ladies that go to Mass every day and says the rosary afterward.
I walk down the sidewalk on the Lombardi’s side of the church. The Lombardi’s are our next-door neighbors. My house is two doors down from the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. The OLPH School is right next to the church and rectory where the priests live.
As I make my way down towards the back parking lot, I slip and fall on the slippery sidewalk. I have trouble getting up because the sidewalk has a thin layer of ice underneath the snow that has recently fallen. My butt would probably hurt more but it’s frozen from the cold. I keep going. And low and behold I see about ten kids climbing the mountains of snow.
What mountains of snow do you ask? The mountains of snow all over the parking lot. The church owns a snowplow, and it always comes out and plows all the snow from the parking lot and piles it in mounds about five or six feet high. These are the mountains where all the kids in the town play when there is a big snowstorm. This is where I’m heading.
I see a couple of kids from my fifth-grade class, and I head in their direction. They see me and start waving at me. I wave back. After what feels like hours, I make it to the mountain of snow they are on top of it. I see one of the kids fall down to the ground. I keep watching to see if he’ll get up. And he does and he starts climbing up the snowy mound again. He makes it to the top and starts waving and yelling.
I get to the hill, and I start my climb. I pull myself up hand over hand until I get to the pinnacle. I see a hand stretched out to me. I grab hold of it. And just as I’m about to get to the top, I feel they are letting go of my hand. And down I go, I look up before I hit the ground and I see the hand belongs to one of the boys in my class that spends all his free time torturing me. I promise myself to seek revenge at my first opportunity. I start my ascent.
I finally get to the top and I see my nemesis smiling down at me. I reach up as high as I can, and I grab his hand and pull as hard as I can. And down he goes and so do I. We both hit the ground hard. It knocks the air out of my lungs, and I can’t speak momentarily. And then I look over at him, and he starts to laugh and so do I. I guess neither one of us will be King of The Mountain, this time.
We both get up and start up the hill again. The first Snow Day has begun.