Snow in Skokie comes off the lake with a bite in it, fills the alleys behind the brick bungalows and settles on every back stair and flat garage roof between Dempster and Oakton. Smith & Sons Snow Removal takes it on: plowing driveways, garage aprons and lots, shoveling front walks and stairs, salting the sidewalk squares that stay iced in the shade all day. The village runs on early mornings — the train slipping south toward Howard, cars that have to be out by seven — so the work happens well ahead of that. Everything here sits close together and everybody is going somewhere, so a bare walk and a clean apron carry the whole morning. By the time the plows have finished the boulevards, the drives along the block are already open.