A year ago this week, a winter storm hit the South. North Carolina has a tendency to shut down at the mere mention of a flurry in the forecast, but this was a real snow-and-ice, gridlock inducing storm that was particularly bad for two reasons: the ferocious speed at which it came and the melting and refreezing of the snow, which subsequently created lots of ice on the roads. It hit at what I thought was a very inconvenient time (funny how snow seems to do that), but turned out to be a great memory.
February 12th was the long awaited UNC-Duke basketball game in Chapel Hill. As seniors, all of my friends and I were ecstatic and ready to go see a Tar Heel victory.
That morning I was working in Durham at the Children’s Hospital Radiothon when we saw the first flurries out the window around noon. As the snow fell rapidly, a quick decision ended the call-in fundraiser early and we scrambled to contact families scheduled to come in later in the day while also packing up all of our supplies so everyone could head home. By the time I got to my car it had been snowing for 2 hours and most people were already on the road. Massive gridlock allowed me to go all of 2 blocks in an hour. Luckily, Will only lived a few blocks away and walked to my car to help navigate our way to a parking deck where we left the car and walked back to his apartment. At that point I was bummed that I probably wouldn’t make it to the game, but hopeful that the Duke basketball team wouldn’t be able to make it either.
Around 6pm, the rivalry basketball game was postponed-something that has never happened in its 236-game history. I was snowed in with Will and his friends for three days with the Winter Olympics, no class and the two outfits I had from Radiothon. It was delightful. We baked cookies, watched all of the figure skating, luge and ski competitions you would ever want to see and found a yard sign to turn into our own sled (it worked surprisingly well!).
I also built a (mini) snowman : )
If last year’s weather was any indication of what this year will be like, bring it on-our sledding hills are ready.
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