1 man and a plow truck

About 1 man and a plow truck

On the coldest nights in Ham Lake, most of the town is asleep when a single pair of headlights swings off the highway and starts down the long driveways. That is the whole operation — one man, one plow truck, and a route he knows by the shape of every mailbox under snow. The lots here run big and the driveways run long, and each one gets the same treatment: a clean first pass, a tight back-drag at the garage door, banks pushed wide to leave room for the next storm. By the time the school buses roll, the work is already behind him. It is simple arithmetic, done with a steel blade: snow falls in the dark, and by morning it is gone.