Facing the perils of winter with a smile

Photo by Louise Foerschner

For those in cold climes, driving in the winter can be an arduous task. Sometimes just getting out of the driveway requires a great deal of effort (and a good shovel). Then out on the road, there are perils like black ice, poor visibility and huge snow banks.

I lived in Oregon many years ago and can still recall the near-death feeling of spinning out of control in a friend’s car on the way to the local ski resort.

It can take training and experience, good equipment (areas in which my friend was apparently lacking) and sometimes even a “sunny” outlook, so to speak, to make it through to spring.

A few weeks ago, winter arrived early in Spangle, Wash., near the state’s eastern border with Idaho. Snow fell over the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the roads that Monday morning were “quite fun,” as Teresa Engle of Liberty School District #362 put it.

Keeping her head up high in the face of chilly adversity, Kimberly Trower, one of the district’s drivers, wrote the following witty poem. We thought many of you would appreciate it as the official start of winter draws near.

— Thomas McMahon, executive editor

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Ode to Bus Drivers in Winter
By Kimberly Trower

Up before dawn on a cold, blustery morn
To pre-trip a bus — check its lights and its horn,
And make sure the tires are filled up with air
Before venturing out on roads far from bare.

Though bodies are pleading to go back inside,
Duty is calling to give kids a ride
To the small country school, where they'll all do some learning
Before going back home to hearth fires burning.

The wind is a-howling; snow's blowing sideways
While drivers are squinting for covered-up driveways
Where children are waiting and eager to load —
Impatient to get on board out of the cold.

Big, yellow buses fill up with small riders
While steering down roads that feel like slip-n-sliders,
Accomp'nied by the clamor of boisterous kids
Not bothered a bit by heart-stopping skids.

They look so surefooted, those great yellow beasts,
But rear wheels can still stray from west to the east,
And though drifts are blown-through with minimal glitches,
It can be quite hard to tell shoulders from ditches.

On through the tempest, with bright strobe lights flashing
The goal is the school — without tipping or crashing!
And make it they do, thanks to grace, skill and prudence,
To await the command to release all the students.