ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180024
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Between the LInes
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS
Just about everyone has a snow story, and everyone thinks his story is the best.
And since snow has been on the mind - and everything else - snow stories have been cropping up everywhere.
I'll tell you mine first. It's in two parts.
Part One: I was surprised recently to see a picture in this newspaper of a snow scene - a car over a little embankment and several firefighters.
What caught my eye was that one of the firefighters was one of my two sons. The next thing I noticed was that the accident scene looked very familiar, one that I had seen many times before.
It was taken on Boxley Road in the Hollins area of Roanoke County and happened to be directly in front of the house I lived in for 30 years. (I moved six years ago.)
Now, Part Two.
Many years ago on this same street, I was returning home late one snowy night. It was an uphill run to my house, and my car was without snow tires, chains, studs or anything else to make it go in snow.
At the bottom of the hill, the wheels just spun and spun. I could not make the car go in any direction, except for a little slipping sideways toward a ditch. There was no place to park, even if I could move it into a parking place. Which is to say the car had to be moved.
So, there was only one thing to do - put on chains.
It was late at night, or really early in the morning; about 2. Every house on the street was dark, and there I was in the street groveling on the snowy ground trying to install chains.
This was never an easy job for me, and on that night it was even harder - on the ground in the snow, cold fingers, cold feet, cold face, cold all over and with no one else in sight to help.
In addition, it was Christmas Eve.
Out there in that dark and stormy night I finally managed to get the chains on and drove the last 300 or so feet up the hill and safely into my driveway.
But, that's not all.
The snow stopped about daybreak; before noon, the temperature soared into the 50s and the snow started melting. The streets cleared first, and I had to take the chains off - after having only driven with them on less than a minute.
Just the other day, I was talking to a younger colleague, and she mentioned that cars don't seem to use chains these days.
That's right, chains are seldom used anymore. In fact, I don't even own a set now.
And to that I say, "Hurray."
There's no danger that I will have to install them on dark and snowy nights - or at any time.
Charles Stebbins, who covers the Town of Vinton for Neighbors, took a break from shoveling snow to compose this column.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB