Mr. Ploww

About Mr. Ploww

The streets of this village switchback down to the Hudson at grades that a half inch of ice can close completely. Mr. Ploww is out on them in the dark — plowing, shoveling and spreading salt across driveways, walks and the short steep aprons that define a river-town winter. Snow crossing the Palisades comes with the wind behind it and packs hardest at the foot of every hill. Clearing here means knowing which way the meltwater will run at noon and where it will freeze again at six. By the time the first Hudson Line train pulls out, the drives are open and the steps are gritted.