Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

My Dad used to say that my parochial elementary school would cancel classes “every time The Pope sneezed!” Well, after the recent wave of snowstorms and school cancellations, it looks like The Pope did more than just sneeze.

Back then a school snow day meant sledding at Powder House Park, having snowball fights, building snow forts and shoveling your neighbors’ sidewalks for money. I remember “going shoveling” and then using our earnings to buy a stack of pancakes at The Waldorf Restaurant in Davis Square.

The photo here is of my mother, Gerry Del Ponte, taken during the Blizzard of ’78 (notice Gorins?). She was a social worker at The Department of Social Services building that was where the CVS is now in Davis Square. Nothing stopped my mom from trudging through the snow to get to her job (I guess she would have done anything to get away from her three wild teenagers at home!). I remember she even walked home for lunch after that storm because we lived between the Square and Powder House (probably to catch us doing something wrong!).

Recently, as we kept getting more and more snow dumped on us, it began to take a toll. We have far surpassed snow amounts from 1978. Our backs and arms are sore from shoveling and our feet are cold from walking in the snow and ice. If you have to walk you may have to do a balancing act just to get on and off curbs and crossing streets.

God knows we have tried to keep up with the onslaught of snow but enough is enough. Who do we complain to? Just to each other, that’s who. We moan to one another in the check out line at Star and Stop ‘n Shop and say clever things like, “Is it ever going to stop snowing?” and, “Where the hell are we going to put more snow?” We bond with our neighbors who are all in the same boat. Parking spaces are few and far between, which adds to the anxiety of repeated snowstorms. No matter how much they plow, the fact is that the streets are very narrow requiring more attention from us drivers.

I’m in the “church zone” off College Ave. and Sunday some poor guy and his wife thought they could make a space out of the snow bank in front of my house. He was sticking way too far out into the street. Not only would it be impossible for the plow to get by him, but I couldn’t even get by to get my Tahoe in the driveway. I told him he could pull his Jeep into my driveway for a couple of hours while he was in church. I figured I could get a few brownie points with the big guy upstairs!

But other drivers weren’t so lucky. It’s wearing very thin on people. It’s hard to keep your temper in check when snowstorm after snowstorm is making your life extremely difficult. I have been trying to use one-way streets as much as possible while tooling around the city because it’s pretty hairy when two cars are trying to go opposite ways on a two way street.

The city is doing an awesome job keeping up and I know the devoted DPW workers are exhausted. We really appreciate all their hard work. We can help by trying to have patience and by using a little courtesy, especially on the roads. Please clear a fire hydrant if you can. Firemen and dogs will thank you!

Some drivers go way too fast under these adverse conditions. They drive like nut cases when they should be using even more caution than usual. Some kids on a side street were sledding down their driveway and ending up in the street. Hey mom and dad, do you know where your kids are? As they say – OMG! (Oh My God). Here are a couple more OMG’s from the snow-encrusted streets of Somerville: Joggers running TOWARDS TRAFFIC, and at night too! Are you kidding me? I saw a car covered in snow with just a small area cleared off on the windshield so they could see out. That’s being lazy AND dangerous. I saw a weirdo wearing headphones speeding in a tiny car swerving down Broadway. Hey pal, take the headphones off so you can hear the cop’s siren pulling you over! He should get fined double. Some guy was actually riding a bike between me and the car behind me on Saturday night and the bike had no lights or reflectors…in the snow! We need to use a little common sense in these unbelievably snowy times to be safe.

If I find my nerves getting pushed to the limit, I think I’ll go out in the yard and build a cool snow fort. It will be easy because the snow piles in my yard are almost to the second floor! And if a snowball fight breaks out remember … no throwing snowballs in the face!! HANG IN THERE.