Sometimes snow is good. Sometimes snow is bad. The snow during this particular road trip in the early 90s was unforgettable.
Listen Free: | Apple Podcasts | Pandora | Stitcher | Spotify |
Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:03.780] - Aaron Intro
Hey Everybody, it's Aaron. So, I just looked at the weather report and it looks like we're going to get our first big snow overnight and into tomorrow. And not going to lie. Even before I came in here and started recording this, I looked out the window very dramatically, very dramatically, and the window sill was already starting to frost over a little bit. The snow is coming down and I'm looking out in my front yard and I see this newly fallen bed of snow just glistening. And on top of that, I just put the Christmas lights out a couple of days ago. So I got the Christmas lights flickering. And it's flickering against the snowflakes that are falling down. It's like looking through a window and looking into heaven. It really is. Now, I don't know if it's growing up in the Cleveland area, Northeast Ohio, people who are listening, if you grew up where there was snow, you know that there's a romantic side to it. I romanticize snow for good reason. And so the first snow is always an exciting thing. But then there's also a very unromantic side to snow and the effect it can have on travel and just overall mood and all that kind of stuff. If there's too much of it over time or if it becomes a disaster, that's not good. And so that's a very real thing too that has happened, and I've experienced growing up in this area, too. So all of this, by the way, reminds me of a story I told about, man it's over a year ago. It was January of 2019, and it was one of the first episodes of 7 Minute Stories that I put out there. God 2019 is not that long ago. But really, in the world of 7 Minute Stories, when you're telling a 7 Minute Story every week, that was a lot of stories ago. So, I told this story. It was called the blizzard. It is called the blizzard. And it was one of our first episodes, as I said. And I'm just excited to share it with many of you who are new listeners, because it's one of my favorites. And I think it's an appropriate time, especially with this oncoming snowstorm that's going to happen overnight. So without further ado, please enjoy The Blizzard.
[00:02:17.910] - Aaron Story
It's January 2019, and I'm in Ohio, where I grew up, and I live now. And I'm expecting some bad weather. It's always been like this since I've been a kid, I mean, my entire life, I know there's global warming now, but every year for at least 30 years, I expect blizzard like conditions for about four months out of the year. And January and February are usually the worst. And every once in a while, you get a really big one, like one that makes you question your own existence. One that makes you question why you live here in the first place and why you haven't left already. I remember it was the mid 90s. I was a pre-teen and I was sitting in my grandfather's car in Columbus, Ohio, parked waiting for my grandmother to come out of a convention center and we were going to pick her up and drive her back to Cleveland. Seems simple enough.
[00:03:12.770]
She was a food critic for a local paper, and she had been there for a few days and my grandfather wanted to keep me for the weekend. So it all came together where we were going to be in this car in Columbus and head back to Cleveland, and enjoy a nice weekend together. I was going to be great! But as we were sitting there, I started looking out the window and started noticing some changes, a couple of flurries outside. Then it turned to big snowflakes then small snowflakes. I mean, the diversification of these snowflakes would amaze you. Then hail started, then the wind started picking up. And it wasn't just wind. It was like tornado-like winds. And then the hail went from being like little beads to turning into little sharp pointed knives. And then when the wind picked up, it started pelting the cars and then the people walking outside were being hit literally with icicle knives from the blizzard like conditions.
[00:04:00.620]
I looked across the street. My grandfather said, "look, look!". We saw three people get knocked on their ass. It was as if God himself had came up and whacked them on the back of their head. They fell to the ground and the wind then drug them across the crosswalk on the ice all the way to the other side of the street. I knew we were fucked. Meanwhile, my grandmother runs out from the convention center, jumps in the car, and when she opens the door, all the papers, everything in the car flies out. (wind sounds) It's like you were in an airplane and you bust the window. I've never done that, but I've seen it in movies it was just like flies out of there. And my hat that I was wearing, my favorite Cleveland Browns hat with the little puffball on the top, was swept away, never to be seen again. But there we were, all three of us sitting in this Mercedes. And it wasn't the most expensive Mercedes, but it was a Mercedes. And my grandfather grew up poor and worked his ass off his whole life. And he finally had a Mercedes. And he told me, "this is a sturdy car. This is a man's car. It's got a great frame, great tires, four wheel drive. You can drive it in any condition, any weather. This is the car to have. This will keep you and your family safe."
[00:05:13.190]
So we started our journey on I-71 north back to Cleveland. We were on the road for maybe 20 minutes and the snow picks up so bad that it becomes a whiteout, literally a whiteout. There was no other color, but white, couldn't see space, couldn't see road, couldn't see cars, couldn't see restaurants, couldn't see road signs. And somehow my grandfather was making his way down the highway very, very slowly but safely. He was laser focused on the road. My grandmother was trembling. I was trembling in the back. I thought I was going to die. But somehow he would see another car and move around it. It was like art.
[00:05:52.670]
But then I realized when I looked at the clock inside of the car that we had been driving for at least three hours and we were probably only a quarter of our way to our destination in Cleveland. And we were starving. And we needed to fill up with gas, we were running out of gas. My grandfather had a vision. He had a theory. He was going to keep pushing that gas tank because he knew there was a rest stop, this rural rest stop in Ohio where he could pull off and get gas. And my grandmother, every exit we passed, she would say, "you got to pull over, we're going to die, we're going to die." Or she'd say, "there's a restaurant, it's open", but nothing was really open. I mean, restaurants were closed. A lot of the gas stations were closed because of the weather. And the ones that were open were filled up with cars. And you have to wait hours to get in. But my grandfather kept pushing it until the gas tank was almost empty and you wouldn't believe it, he was right.
[00:06:49.980]
We found this little rural exit that we got off of in this tiny little gas station and we pulled up and we filled up our car, he was victorious. And even better yet, about a half a mile down this road, you could see up in the clouds this faint yellow glow. I thought it was maybe rescue helicopters to come and get us, but it was better, it was the golden arches of McDonald's. And at this time, only McDonald's would be open and forced their workers to come in and serve billions of hamburgers to people around America.
[00:07:27.100]
And if there was any family, any three people that needed hamburgers right now, it was me and my grandparents and we pulled down this little road into the McDonald's. And we realize that even though the golden arches were lit up. To indicate their corporate presence. The McDonald's itself was closed. It was going to be a long rest of the drive. And my grandfather crawled in this car for six hours all the way back to the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, and the only way he was able to do it, was he pulled up really close to this car in front of us. And he was tailing it, and he was tailing the two, the taillights and he said, "just follow these lights," They were like eyes of wolves just looking back at us. But they were guiding us. It was like a winter wolf guiding us through this storm. And he told me, "if you look closely through the snow flakes at the license plate, he said that car dealership is about a half a mile down the road from where I live. And if we follow this car, it will take us back home."
[00:08:32.800]
And I swear to God, it may have taken us nearly six hours, but it took us all the way back home. Into the garage and safe from the storm. And we got inside, took off our winter coats. We sat around the dinner table, I looked at the clock, it was 11:58 p.m. We had been on the road that day since noon. We were the lucky ones.
[00:09:02.010]
I was so grateful, and then my grandmother starts making and reheating day old pasta with marinara sauce and meatballs. And I sat with my grandparents at midnight and had the greatest spaghetti dinner I've ever had in my entire life to this day. We were so lucky. I am so lucky. But it's also January. It's 2019. And if you live anywhere where snow exists. Remember, the next big blizzard could be around the corner.
