Cook's Assembly

About Cook's Assembly

Snow takes the alleys and flat roofs first, and by four in the morning downtown Allentown is a grid of untouched white between the buildings. Cook's Assembly is already in it — plowing lots and driveways, opening the alley runs behind the row houses, scraping and salting the sidewalks so the first riders out on Hamilton Street have footing. Ice is treated before it can glaze a step. A lot finished at daybreak is a real pleasure: piles stacked clear of the sightlines, pavement dark and wet, everything ready for a city with no idea how early this started. Allentown opens on time, which is the whole assignment.