Pay It Forward

During the blizzard of 1978 I was in high school and having the time of my life.  Come on….what teenager with 3 weeks off of school wouldn’t be having the time of their life?  

I remember pieces of cloth tied to car antennas , a six foot snow mound of a drop from Preston Road (the street of my childhood home) to Summer Street, my mom’s homemade chicken soup and endless hours of shoveling -  lots and lots of shoveling and absolutely nowhere to put the snow.   And I remember neighbors helping neighbors.  No one questioned why and no one complained about it.   We just helped each other.   We were all in the same boat and everyone helped.   If a neighbor was elderly maybe they didn’t shovel but they made coffee, tea and hot chocolate for those who were shoveling.   Maybe a neighbor had very young children and couldn’t get out to shovel but that neighbor was the one who had all the other young children over their house or yard to play while others took care of business.    Business at the time was shoveling of course.  Being a teenager I never gave it much thought as to how everyone was helping and everyone was making sure their neighbors were o.k., safe, warm and had a belly full of homemade chicken soup.   

I also never gave it a second thought when my parents loaded up a sled with that homemade chicken soup among other things and asked me to take it to my Grandmother who at the time lived just outside of Union Square on Warren Avenue.   Walking down the middle of Summer Street dragging a sled full of supplies, not a moving car in sight just people helping people.   I dragged that sled down my Nana’s place and spend a couple days with her riding out the rest of the state of emergency, making sure she was o.k., sipping tea from real tea cups not mugs and eating that homemade chicken soup.  Part of me really wanted to be back on Preston Road building awesome snow forts and having snowball fights with the rest of the neighborhood kids but I am really glad I did what I did because it turned out to be the last winter with my Nana.    I think of her and the blizzard of 1978 every time the meteorologists hint that we might be in for a whopper of a snow storm.

And so as it goes the meteorologists are saying we are in for a whopper of a snow storm and do you know what I’m thinking?  Yes, I’m thinking of my Nana and my Mom’s homemade chicken soup but I’m also thinking that I’m just going to help.    That I’m just going to help someone shovel their walk or maybe their car out, I’m going try to shovel out a fire hydrant or two and I’m not going to think twice and I’m not going to complain.  Why?  Because we are all in the same boat!

(After writing this and posting it on my blog I did have a second thought.  I thought maybe it was too much personal information.  I thought maybe it wasn’t professional of me to make a post like this.  I thought maybe I shouldn’t have.  Sometimes we (Yes! Myself included) tend to put certain groups of people in a category different from others but the bottom line is -  I am human – I grocery shop, commute to work, spend time with my children and shovel.  

I challenge everyone to “Pay it Forward” during the upcoming storm and help out a friend, a neighbor – a stranger.   Shovel out a fire hydrant, make a cup of coffee for that person shoveling out that fire hydrant or better yet help that little child finish building that snowman……Just Pay It Forward.  

Whatever you do please be safe, keep an ear open for snow emergency announcements, school closings, etc……..)