ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601150059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
EVEN MUNDANE tasks like taking a trip to the hardware store seemed like big stuff to Roanoke area snowstorm survivors.
At midday, the score stood 6-6 on the small, frozen pond in Northwest Roanoke.
Just after the first snowfall last week, Jon Snidow spotted the patch of ice as he drove along Interstate 81. As soon as he saw it, he knew.
Tucked behind green No.2 at the Countryside Golf Course was something better than a clear street, four-wheel drive and warm weather: It was free ice.
"At the [Roanoke] Civic Center, it costs $125 an hour" to play hockey, Snidow said.
On Saturday, shovels lay at the edge of the ice, near duffel bags of hockey equipment. Against a backdrop of rolling white hills came the persistent scratching of metal on ice and the intermittent hoots of victory.
"It's addictive, once you start playing," said Greg Bishop, sweat rolling down his forehead.
For the past week as snow piled on the pond, Snidow and his cohorts cleared it off. Saturday they found 4 inches of new snow. Not to fear; they had shovels. And within 30 minutes, their rink was bare.
Nothing could keep them from the ice.
"You couldn't ask for a better day," said Chris Myers.
Saturday wasn't the first time people ventured outside during the past week. But for most, it was the first time they didn't have to shovel or raid the supermarket shelves with hundreds of others.
So what did many do? What any red-blooded American would - they headed to the malls to shop or the superstores to stock up on snow-removal equipment.
At Lowe's, near Crossroads Mall, shoppers wanted shovels - the one item not available.
"On Wednesday, we got 400 snow shovels at 6:45 a.m.," said store manager Mike Boswell. "We sold them all by 7:45 a.m."
"Are you serious - they don't have shovels?'' asked shopper Gayenelle Grant, who was also hoping to buy a propane heater with her husband and children.
The trip wasn't a total waste for the Botetourt County family.
"It was just nice to get out and see something more than the snow," said her husband, Chuck.
A couple of aisles away, customers surveyed the housing possibilities for their fine feathered friends. Paulette Randolph of Roanoke County looked for an extra feeder. During the snowstorm, she said, the birds flocked to the one hanging in her back yard. She had blue jays, all kinds of finches and blackbirds.
"If I have to sit inside and look at the snow, I want something to look at," she said.
Don and Marlene Davis stocked up on food for their squirrels. A 10-pound sack of corn sat in their cart, along with 50 pounds of birdseed.
"The squirrels have run out of food; they're getting kind of hyper," said Marlene Davis, who's been homebound since the first storm, her car stuck in a snow mound.
"It's not the idea that I wanted to go somewhere," she said. "It's the idea that I couldn't go somewhere."
At Valley View Mall, motorists hoping to get away from it all ended up in a traffic jam. Snow banks on the side of the road forced three lanes to merge into one just off the exit ramp of Interstate 581.
In the city, many downtown streets had been cleared to the curb, while crews shut down Wells Avenue to remove the snow in front of the Hotel Roanoke.
Neighborhood roads were passable but gave motorists a bumpy ride over packed, rutted ice. Plow crews would continue to work around the clock until the snow is gone, said Bill Clark, Roanoke's director of public works. But exactly when that will be is anyone's guess.
At least one observer of the snowstorm hysteria took it all in stride. Home from school all last week, Bryant Lawton, 16, made it to the mall most days.
"I've been seeing it all - about how people have been panicking," he said. "It's uncalled for. ... Snow is snow - it's Mother Nature. It ain't nothing to panic over."
Besides, it always melts.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. 1. A bunch of shovels helped a bunchby CNBof friends make the most of a frozen pond Saturday on Countryside
Golf Course. 2. Don and Marlene Davis of Vinton stock up at Lowe's
in Roanoke for the birds and squirrels. color.