It’s been 30 years since the biggest snowfall of my children’s lifetime, and it is getting close to the end of this season for additional snow.

It seems like this year may be a record of its own except for lack of snow this time.

It’s fun to look back at such events and what mattered to us that day.

The Eagle was still a Saturday afternoon publication at the time, and the snow was going to be worst at about our normal Saturday press time of 11 a.m.

We decided to jump-start things and get our newspaper on the street quickly. We managed to get enough people into the plant to print and distribute our publication before the state shut down roads completely.

Because we moved when we did, we were the only Pennsylvania newspaper to get all of our papers out that day.

Some of our youth carriers probably delivered later Sunday after the storm was over, but all copies left our building on time with instructions for the drivers and carriers to put safety first but do the best they could.

As we drove north on Main Street and Route 8 that day around noon, it was apparent that soon the roads would not be passable. Climbing Main Street hill with at least 6 inches of snow on the ground and no signs of previous traffic was interesting.

After slip-sliding through the hills of the neighborhood, we reached home and the mounting task of snow to be cleared from the driveway and the sidewalks so the kids (too young to help) could be out in the winter wonderland.

That was the best opportunity of a lifetime to use the favorite adult toy, the John Deere (JD) Lawn tractor with the snowplow. The depth of the snow was quickly reaching a level that would exceed what the monster tractor (really meant to mow the grass) would be able to push. What an inspirational challenge!

The driver and his equipment tore through that snow challenge, all the while beginning to look like the abominable snow monster from the quickly falling white cover. The duo of man and machine skillfully and with great success completed the task at hand and then realized there was an opportunity to play superhero and move onto neighbors’ (who didn’t have the big equipment) property and save them, should they need to go out for milk or if they kids needed to venture out in search of better sledding hills than our neighborhood offered.

One after another the self-proclaimed road crew of Shawnee Drive worked its magic. (Truth is, it was two small driveways.) Feeling proud, but also noting that their own drive was already sporting several new inches of snow, there was a decision to be made.

Go for another driveway or start over? But then the man’s ego was shattered.

The local doctor who lived in the neighborhood had also decided to be super-neighbor. But he trumped (probably a pun in there) the first tractor with a shiny new rig that the smaller John Deere could only bow to in reverence as it rolled in. While JD could clear a driveway in about 30 minutes, this incredible piece of machinery the doctor brought came with a snowplow, a snowblower and even a salt spreader attached, and the doctor was quite comfortably seated in the enclosed heated cab listening to his favorite music.

JD had his fun, but now the big boy would take over.

Thirty years and several lawn tractors later, the memory of working that snow day is still vivid, but so is the memory of learning no matter how special your toys are, someone else always has better ones.

— RV