Black and White

I’m so bored! It’s snowing again… still… The view outside my window might as well be in black and white because that is all there is: white sky, white snow and trees in varying shades of grey. An occasional squirrel, also grey, frolics through the trees making it seem like it is snowing harder but it is just the branch he has used for a springboard that has sent its load down to the ground where I will have to shovel it away. Thanks Rocky. I wanted to look up the name of the person who dreamed up Rocky, the Flying Squirrel, but my internet connection seems to be having difficulty. It is just that kind of day: no instant gratification. Even eating doesn't help. Once upon a time I would have looked up the answer in my Compton’s Encyclopedia. Why we got Compton’s I don’t know. The gold-standard of encyclopedias was Britannica. My Aunt and Uncle had Britannica. Maybe it was the cover. Britannica was brown and Compton’s was white and grey… like today!

And speaking of the days when TV was black and white, whatever happened to all those door-to-door salesmen? Could you imagine hauling an encyclopedia around in a suitcase all day? And The Fuller Brush Man? The Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Man? The Avon Lady? Okay, Avon is still around but it’s not the same. We had cake delivered by the Duggan’s Bakery and our sodas by the Seltzer Man; Good Health Seltzer. He was the strongest person I knew. Have you ever lifted a seltzer bottle? It’s heavy! Put six of them in a wooden crate that’s heavy even when it is empty, add a bottle of Fox’s Ubet and pile on another crate of Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda, Black Cherry, Celery Tonic and Root Beer and you have a cargo worthy of Hercules. I think of him when I have to carry a single 2 liter plastic bottle. Of course there was the milk man, and the metal box outside our door from Cloverdale Farm. The milk would have a paper cap and under the cap would be a half-inch layer of cream. To open my plastic half-gallon of 1% I had to go through TWO security measures!

Just the fact that all these people came to your door… that they would be let inside… UPS delivered a package the other day; when I heard the knock at the door I jumped three feet. Nobody comes to my door! And if they do, they’re certainly not getting in! But still it’s nice to remember a time when everything didn’t have to be hermetically sealed and a stranger in your living room only wanted a commission.

This snow is relentless. But I’m going out before I eat myself into a stupor and before it’s too heavy to push. I’ll wear my black jacket, black snow pants, black boots and will use the grey shovel. Ah, the good old days.