ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601220013
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: dispatches from rye hollow
SOURCE: STEVE KARK
I'd like to be able to say I weathered the recent winter storm with grit and self-reliance. That my wife and I hunkered down in Rye Hollow, stocked up on firewood and supplies, and waited it out like true woodsfolk.
I could go into a long-winded account of how we cleaned out the wood stove and set aside a big pile of kindling; or how we propped the snow shovels near the back door and put new mantles on the Coleman lanterns.
I'd like to say that this is what happened, but it wouldn't be right.
You see, while the New River Valley was assaulted by one of the worst snowstorms ever, I was a thousand miles away in an Arizona desert, hiking and taking pictures of cacti.
It's not as though we went there to avoid the storm. The trip had been planned months before. Still, this is the second time we've avoided a serious winter storm by escaping to a warmer place; we missed the Blizzard of '93 in the same way.
Mind you, I don't regret missing the snow and all. The romance of new snow wears awfully thin when supplies run low, and you can't get out to renew them. And even under the best of conditions - a full fridge, satellite TV, unread books in the library - cabin fever begins to take hold in a surprisingly short time.
Given a choice, I'd much rather be in the desert. It's just that this pattern of running off when the going gets tough complicates any claim I might make about being a self-reliant woodsman, an image, however phony, I've worked hard at nurturing.
Should the truth be known, chain saws make me nervous. Still, I'd like folks to think I can handle one well enough when I need to. I can split wood too, but the man who keeps cattle in the field above us - a man considerably older than me - puts me to shame when he gets to splitting firewood.
My wife and I both drive four-wheel drive vehicles, and not just because they happen to be the trend at the time. We need them often enough just to get up and down the driveway, even when there isn't 3 feet of snow to plow through.
Nonetheless, after we had returned from our trip, it didn't take me long to get BOTH stuck in the snow. Some self-reliant woodsman!
As I said before, I'd like to be able to say that we dealt with the storm through our own resourceful efforts, but it wouldn't be the truth.
In fact, we weren't home more than a few hours before I began asking the neighbors for help.
And though they had problems of their own, not the least of which included having hungry livestock to feed, they lent a helping hand anyway.
Between them, our neighbors have cleared our road, pulled our vehicles from ditches, picked fresh vegetables for us in the summer and fed our cats while we were away.
I could go on and on.
They know how self-reliant we really are.
I ask you, what am I going to do with neighbors like that? I can't even work up the phony woodsman story with folks like that around.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB