The Blizzard of 2004: A Sackville Perspective

Like most families these days, our daily routine involves rushing from work, to our children's school, to volunteer activities, and extracurricular events. Our family is frequently tired and often does not have time to visit with friends or neighbours. The blizzard of 2004 was a welcome event in our family. We didn't have to go to work! No school! Our meetings were cancelled! And the badminton tournament, where we would have spent our entire weekend, was postponed! Yes it was snowing and snowing . and snowing!!! Our car, like our neighbours, was buried under the snow. We lost our power over night, so we had to improvise for dinner, a source of heat, and entertainment. The drifts in our backyard were to the top of our five-foot fence. The birds that attempted to eat at our feeders were blown off their stands or choose to wait out the storm sitting in a feeder on top of the seeds.

As the storm subsided, we looked out the window of our home and started to see doors being pushed open against the snow that had piled up. Little figures emerged, covered from head-to-toe, so that only little eyes and noses peeked out from their hoods. Then low-and-behold adults appear with shovels in hand- and a few snow-blowers too. We hadn t seen many of our neighbours since summer vacation. We were all too busy with our day-to-day routines. But on the Friday morning after the storm six families were standing in the middle of our street in thigh-deep snow, wondering how we were going to every shovel our cars out of the driveways. Well the next thing you know four hours had passed and we had all pitched in to shovel six driveways and a path down the street. That evening a few families raided their freezers for sausages and pizza. The blizzard of 2004 brought us together for a wonderful pot-luck dinner with wonderful companions. Yes, I will remember all of that snow, but I will also remember the great day we spent with our family and friends.