Winter’s coming.
There will likely be a snowfall or two sending all of Central Virginia to Kroger’s to buy every carton of milk in sight and then retreat into hibernation. The radio and TV people will say, “Stay home unless you have to get out because there is – oh no – snow on the roads.”
I took my driver’s license on a day when there was 13-inches of ice and snow on the highway. I passed with flying colors. The State Trooper was impressed. I lived in West Virginia in the 1960’s when, if you had to stay home every time it snowed, you wouldn’t go to school, to church, to weddings or anywhere else. If it snowed, it was no big deal because every car in the 50’s and 60’s had a set of chains in the trunk. I bet not even 2% of all kids today would even know what chains were or are. Probably lots of young adults, too.
Here’s a refresher course on chains. Chains are heavy steel, cleat-like strips that wrap around your tires. If you have chains on your tires, snow and ice isn’t a factor. The only problem you might encounter would be snowdrifts. When your wheels are off the ground, even chains don’t help. So we avoided snowdrifts and went where we wanted.
Even as teenagers, we picked up our “buds”, cruised the drive-ins and went about our business. Parents didn’t have to remind us to be careful. We knew how to drive in the snow.
When there was snow and ice on the roads, we had three rules: Drive slowly, allow plenty of room to stop and keep up momentum when approaching a hill. No one ever got in a hurry and no one except idiots would gun their engines when the tires started spinning.
Putting chains on was a relatively easy task. If you awoke one morning with a fresh 8-inch snowfall, you opened the trunk and stretched each chain behind the back tires. Next, you backed up about two feet, then wrapped the long end of the chains over the tires, connected the chains and drove away.
Chains work. I wonder why no one uses them anymore?