Memories of Being Snowed In

.Towers North Dorm – Before Snow

Since I live in the SF Bay Area I don’t get snowed in. We don’t even get snowed on. That doesn’t mean I have never been snowed in. I went to College in Missouri, Southeast Missouri State University to be exact. We were snowed in for a whole week once. The town of Cape Girardeau only owned one snow plow so it was busy with the public streets. The college streets and parking lots were no priority at all. It took days for my roommate to even find her car, not that it mattered. We could not dig it out for another 3 days anyway.

So what did we do? We could not go home for the weekend like usual. Could not get across the Illinois border to buy liquor (we were freshmen and only 18). The upper-classmenwomen on our floor that were over 21 could purchase liquor from the grocery store down the street. For a price they would smuggle said purchases into the dorm (big No-No) and supply us lowly freshwomen with our booze of choice.

When I think back on it now, that was so dumb! Boys were not allowed in our dorms, so we sat around drinking and getting melancholy and horny. Some gals were lucky enough to have a TV in their room and we would pop popcorn and gather around to watch girl stuff. In our pj’s and curlers.

I feel sorry for the modern freshwomen – the dorms are co-ed and you live in a “suite” with 3 other roommates. No running about in curlers down the hall to grab some popcorn. Well, you could I suppose if there were no boys you wanted to impress.  Anyway, I digress..

We were a captive student body. We still had to climb “cardiac hill” to get to most of our classes in the ice and snow. The ice was so bad one day that a guy behind me had to literally shove my ass up the hill. I was not strong enough to pull myself up using the railing.

There was a great tradition at the college we had heard about, but until the big snow we could not experience it. One of the coldest, high windchill factor days the college called a “snow day”. Did students stay indoors where it was safe and study? Hell no. We sledded down cardiac hill on cafeteria trays. Despite all the big signs posted in the cafeteria – “DO NOT REMOVE TRAYS FROM THE CAFETERIA”.

I wish I could remember how we managed to sneak the trays out. I DO remember the sledding. It was so fun until you hit a rock. Flimsy plastic trays do not provide any cushion. You feel every rock, stick, whatever you sled over. But we were young and silly. We all compared our bruised butts in the shower room waiting for a shower stall to free up. We were chilled to the bone, sore, and hungry.

It was one of the happiest days of my life. Go figure.