Snow job

Sixth Street, looking west

Now that’s how you do a snowstorm. 48 hours of steady falling snow can do wonders for a city. Before it turns to hard gray slush, the blanket of white and the hush it brings can fool you into thinking that this little town is something close to heaven. Granted, you gotta be a little starry-eyed, (or cross-eyed) to see it, but Jersey City in the middle of a major snow event, is hard to beat. 

At 7:30 a.m, just one or two cars make their way down Jersey Avenue. (Oddly, some of the less-traveled, numbered streets are clear. Jersey Avenue, not so much.) Not a lot is moving out here. Schools are closed. Lots of people have started a three-day weekend. A few brave souls are making their way to work. Me? I’m just walking around.

Shovel patrol at the Hoboken city line

This is the kind of snowstorm we used to get two or three times a winter back in the 70’s. I’ve always enjoyed the early morning walk on a snowy day. I ain’t much for anything rural, so for me, this is as bucolic as it gets. Everything’s so clean. The air is crisp and light. People are walking on the street, and cars are yielding. Nobody’s leaning on their horns. One guy just spontaneously stopped to push another guy out of the parking spot in he was stuck. “Thanks, man,” says the driver. The Good Samaritan waves, and just keeps on walking. What is wrong with these people?

Maybe tomorrow, when the slush turns to ice and people get into fist fights over the few open parking spaces left or someone breaks an ankle on a sidewalk that wasn’t shoveled, I’ll be singing a different tune. (And probably write a sarcastic post about how the mayor has fallen down on the job, etc.) Today, though, I’m kickin’ it old skool, making a bunch of snowballs and just waiting for that cute girl from up the street to walk past.

Newark Avenue, looking east