Let It Snow

We loved lots of snow! We lived right beside the Ocean Spray Company parking lot and when it snowed, the lot was plowed up to our property line - with the lilac trees marking the edge. Our neighbors a few houses up the street owned Casoli Sand & Gravel company and therefore had very large trucks and front end loaders, and had the contract to plow the parking lot. I loved to look out my window at night and watch the trucks & plows push the snow into enormous piles - more accurately, a 10-12 foot high by 100 foot long ridge. Here - 30 feet from our porch - we built fortress walls and extensive tunnel networks. There was enough room for everyone to have their very own "room". Snowball wars were frequent as the quality of our fort building had to be tested. Certain parts were set up for sledding (short but steep). As a teenager, Johnny Casoli loved BIG storms because he got to stay up all night in a BIG "loader" and made BIG $$$. Sledding and tobogganing were always good winter activities when the snow was plentiful. Very early on we tried sledding on Barkers Hill behind the Estes house off of Winter St, but I think too many trees made it too scary. One day Jim Riddell took a bunch of us (me, Laurie, Janet & Nancy Williams, maybe someone else) over to DW Field Park in Brockton where there was a BIG hill leading down into the golf course. As we piled out of the Bronco and unloaded the toboggan, a competition unspokenly developed to try to get the first ride down the slope. Jim jumped on and I managed to get on behind him and get started before Laurie could grab on - leaving her sprawled in the snow at the top of the hill. In our haste to be first, we didn't survey the terrain and didn't notice the "ski jump" ramp somebody had formed near the bottom and right in our path. I remember hearing Jim say "o-oh! Hold On" and then seeing nothing but clear blue sky and then somehow regaining conciousness while already walking and near the top of the hill. A trip directly to the ER for x-rays on my back showed no real damage, just lots of pain that would eventually subside. A few days later Jim showed up with a back brace which he had to wear for a mumber of months. (Now I prefer skiing or tubing)
Snow did cause a nuisiance as far as ice skating was concerned. We didn't like bringing snow shovels over to the pond, and sometimes if we were too impatient and the ice wasn't as thick as it aught to be, the ice would crack where the snow was piled and water would leak through and cause slush where we were trying to play hockey. One day we were all amazed to find a guy with a Jeep and plow out on Wampatuck Pond - clearing a large area for skating.
I remember Dad having and using tire chains, and later the seasonal change of tires when studded snow tires were in vogue, and that there were certain driving decisions that had to be pre-planned to avoid certain hilly roads when travelling. Cars would line up and take turns attempting to make the top of Spring Street hill, the unsuccessful ones skidding and fishtailing before sliding back down to let the next car try. There was a theory that driving up a snowcovered hill in reverse was a better alternative but I don't recall ever seeing it work.