A snowy day to remember

Tough snowy months like February 2010 bring back memorable recollections. Observing two of my most admired workers “traipsing through knee high snow” in front of my home was quite a sight. Randy is our mailman and Ron is our Vindicator carrier.

I have lived here 50 years and this was the greatest one day snowfall on Feb. 6, 2010, that I have experienced here. It measured 18 inches on level ground. I empathize with both Randy and Ron, since I had performed both jobs many years ago. Attending Youngstown College (YSU) under the G.I. Bill, I worked for two weeks each Christmas season as an extra letter carrier, during 1946, 1947, 1948, and 1949, on the east side.

In 1940 I inherited my cousin Ralph LaCivita’s East Side Vindicator newspaper route, Route 302. I don’t remember a heavy snowfall like this.

In February 1942, I broke my left forearm playing class basketball as an East High School senior. My arm was in a heavy L-shaped plaster cast from shoulder to wrist. In addition to carrying the heavy newspaper-filled sack on my right side, I had to lug the cast on the left for six weeks.

Through wind, rain, sleet, and snow, the mail and newspaper must go through. It requires persistence and a positive mental attitude. Each day I eagerly await my mail and newspaper.

Along with the glistening snow, I received another first. A dazzling display of icicles, some 6 feet long, hanging from the gutters. An entire 40-foot length of gutter has several hundred of them, a real work of art. Mother Nature’s wrath can be fast, furious and at times even beautiful.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and an inductee in the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.