Winter in Delaware

One winter, there was a big blizzard where we lived. Mom and I were trying very hard to stay warm in our below-ground apartment. It was actually the basement of Uncle Peter’s medical practice in Delaware, and it was very, very, very cold.

Sometimes we had to hide under the covers and drape a corner over the one little space heater we had, just to stay warm. I kept getting sick though and I always had a runny nose, so my mom made me wear a coat even when I was inside. I didn’t like that.

One morning, we got dressed and ready to go grocery shopping. But we couldn’t open the front door. Our door was at the top of a long and dark staircase, like in a real basement. So we groped and pulled at the door knob in the dark, but we didn’t know what was going on. Mom thought maybe the lock was frozen, so she breathed in the little door crack for a long time. She made me step back, and then pulled really hard, and all of a sudden, we were blinded by bright white light.

Something wasn’t right though. When we could see again, we could see that there was a wall of snow blocking our door, almost all the way to the top. So we started to dig our way out. Some of the snow had turned to ice, and we had to hit it with our mittened fists. That was fun.

When our hole was dug, mom went first and then pulled me out. I kinda slid out, like those penguins do on PBS. Then the tricky part was closing the door behind us.

That day was fun. I felt like a real eskimo, and our house was like an igloo.