To Snowthrower or Not

Back when I was a kid....

We had a driveway that was probably 30 yards long with 8-10 foot walls on both sides.... and we had to throw snow out of it.

It was a trench dug into the ground as it made its way from the street to our tucked-under garage. The closer you got to the garage - the higher the walls of the driveway were - that is as you exited the garage doors, the walls to the top of the yard were at least 8-10 feet tall and then they graduated down the closer you got to the street.

Image from MNHS

My dad had a shovel (didn't it have a nickname.... something like "the crusher"?) that I swear was 3 feet long. And much like Paul Bunyan would throw his axe and fell trees, my dad would take "the crusher" and start from the garage and push and "shove" the snow out to the end of the drive and then scoop it up and toss it to the side. The square footage he could cover with that puppy....

And like my current family there were three boys in that family as well (sounds so odd - like a different bizarro dimension). When the snow got too much and as we boys aged, we got to shovel the snow out of that driveway as well. Up and over the walls - all the way down. We would usually use some strategic plan that my dad would concoct. Like him going a round or two with "the crusher" until the snow was just too much to handle for one man alone. He'd call in for reinforcements and out we would walk with our shovels and snow clothes on like that kid from Christmas Story - the little brother who waddles down the sidewalk due to his sweet one-piece snow suit.

Anyway back to my story. Us reinforcements would come out and start chipping away at that snow through those dark, eerily quiet evenings, throwing it over the wall as best we could. I look back and wonder how much assistance we really were, especially on windy days where the snow would fly back into our faces and back into the drive.

And my dad got by with us boys helping, much like a large family with a farm - and I intend to use my boys as well... to help shovel snow. I intend to put their muscles to work, I will call for their reinforcement assistance in this urban landscape with driveway and sidewalk. And maybe the neighbors too...

Except there was a lot of snow last year (84+ inches)... and my oldest isn't even seven yet... and I don't have any shovel close to handling snow like "the crusher"... and that electric snowthrower that's on sale is calling my name...