Snow brings fun, games to some; cold, wet feet to others

The panic. The uncertainty. The bad driving.

I love snow.

I love the canceled meetings, the kerfuffle over snow days, the way forecasters protect their pride by predicting a snow “event.”

To call it a storm, even if it is a quick freeze with a decent accumulation of solid precipitation, is to invite the scorn of anyone who’s moved here to get away from weather that dumps the makings of an igloo every other week.

An “event” is safer.

It can have a cast of thousands of snowmen, starring a University Place toddler’s first meltable art project and an East Side iceguy hopelessly ensnared in holiday lights.

An event can loosen the lips of everyone who knows how to drive in snow and is eager to point out all the people who don’t.

An event can clog an inbox with warnings not to light the hibachi indoors, let road salt fester on the undercarriage or allow ice to build up on walkways.

An event can make me reconsider the most mundane of chores, the drive to work, plotting out arterials, hills and micro climates. It’s good, sometimes, to remember how the contours of our home turf behave and how that affects us. At a time when we aren’t mowing or gardening, it’s nice to get that reminder.

An event invites fun with a twist, a gentle joke on a good friend. Consider the young man playing catch with his dog near Yakima Avenue and 64th Street. He made a snowball, tossed it between his hands a few times to get the pup all psyched, and let it fly. His trusting, trusty pit bull-mix almost beat the fauxball to its landfall and poof! It wasn’t there. And yet the loyal dog chased the next one, and the next.

It was a good thing the dog wasn’t a cat. Cats would devise a way to turn snow into revenge.

Snow events can prod us into planning. If some guy who can map the wind says he’d stay home if he could, he gets us considering whether we could manage it.

And that’s where snow, either event- or storm-grade, wages class warfare.

It is harshest on the people who have the least.

The affluent and wired might have the option of telecommuting in their comfy slippers and setting the thermostat wherever they like.

The people earning a modest food service or retail wage, the day care minders and gas station attendants, must make their way to work no matter how much “event” has piled up overnight. We depend on them to be there for us.

Others depend on us. Pierce County’s network of shelter providers unleashes severe weather plans aimed at getting everyone inside a shelter, a church hall or a budget motel. Associated Ministries is a central player, supporting programs such as Open Hearth Ministries in Puyallup and the countywide Severe Weather Assistance Program. To reach them, call 253-682-3401 or email them at www.associated ministries.org.

These plans depend largely on donations. If you have some warmth to share, they’d like to hear from you, too.

So would the men and women who sleep in shelters and dine in day-time centers such as Nativity House, Tacoma Rescue Mission and Hospitality Kitchen. They rate snow by how cold and wet it makes their feet. This week, Tacoma Fire Department volunteers delivered exactly what they needed: hundreds of pairs of warm woolen and acrylic socks. The firefighters volunteered their stations as donation sites for The News Tribune’s ninth annual sock drive, and collected boxes and boxes of humble acts of kindness. (It’s not too late to pitch in and leave a pair of foot-saving socks with any agency, or school, that serves needy people.)

Speaking of schools, why, back when I was a kid, there was no such thing as a “snow day.” There was no slacking on either side of the desks. Teachers were required to own skis or sled dogs to get to school, pulling sleighs of children behind them.

Now, that was an event.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman @thenewstribune.com