Chuckin' Snow

About Chuckin' Snow

By nine at night the streetlights of Ottawa township are full of falling snow, and the sidewalks along the older blocks disappear one square of concrete at a time. Chuckin' Snow goes out into exactly that. The name is honest about the method — get under it, lift, and throw it well clear of the walk so the next inch has somewhere to go. Front steps, porch landings, the strip between the drive and the street, the mailbox approach the carrier needs: these are small things until they are the only thing between a neighbor and the rest of the world. Plowing and clearing for drives, shoveling for walks, salt where the melt refreezes overnight. Morning comes, the sun finds bare pavement, and nobody has to guess where the step is.