As I watch Walt, our blind Australian Shepherd play with his sisters in the yard, his leap over the snow drift reminds me of drifts from forty-eight years ago.

January 25, 1978, was on a Wednesday and the snow started in the afternoon. My memory has faded some but I’m guessing we went to school that day. I know Dad went to work at Detroit Diesel Allisons on the west side of Indianapolis. He worked the evening-night shift, and he would probably have had a ten-mile drive on the Interstate from home. By morning we already had 4 inches of snow and the winds were howling. My dad and a few of his co-workers, always ready to pick up a little extra cash, worked a few extra hours. They figured the storm wouldn’t be as severe as was being predicted, and if it was, they’d make some money with more overtime. By the time they found out there wasn’t going to be any, the opportunity to leave had closed. They hung around longer than they should have, ended up eating food from the breakroom and sleeping on tables. We hunkered down at home with movies and breakfast food for dinner comfort. Dad would call and talk to mom a few times a day. The winds during the blizzard reached 40 miles an hour and the snow drifts topped twenty feet high. Indianapolis was shut down for three days. Dad made it home, exactly how I’m not sure. Mom says she thinks one of his buddies drove him home in a truck. For some reason I always thought he rode home on a snowmobile. I can picture my dad on the back of a snowmobile with a helmet on, riding through the streets during a blizzard between twenty-foot-tall snow drifts. It’s something he would have done and loved every minute of it.

This year January 25 was on a Sunday. The snow started on Saturday afternoon and continued through Sunday night. We ended up with about sixteen inches of snow, but the wind gusts were a lot less than in 1978. A good snowstorm but not a blizzard. Dad retired in the 1990’s and would have stayed in with mom if he were able. Snuggled and warm watching old Humphrey Bogart or Audrey Hepburn movies. Sharing a blanket and eating popcorn. Or maybe we would have brought them to our house to weather the storm. I retired last year, we could have played Uno or Euchre, laughed and just enjoyed being together. All wishful thinking… The snow is still here. The dogs are still playing. Dad is still gone and my heart is still broken.