Dad's Winter Driving Advice

Currently my neighborhood streets are snow packed and icy and there are piles 3-4 feet high of snow that has been shoveled off my driveway.  The main roads however are in good shape and life continues along with minimal winter disruptions. On my commute this morning I was thinking back to winter driving advice that I received growing up.

At age 14 and the oldest of 4 siblings, I became responsible for driving us 10 miles into town to attend school as we were not on a school bus route.  This being in the days before SUV type vehicles were common, the car provided by my parents was a sweet Ford Pinto with an 8 track player.  We loved the car but needless to say, the rear wheel drive little Pinto didn't love winter weather. 

Our driveway was 1/4 mile from the county road and had a low-lying gully in the middle of it.  This gully might have standing water in the spring or be full of drifted snow in the winter.  It was the source of never ending driving challenges.  It was also the ready source of frogs for our little brother but that is another story. 

My father was usually the first one out the door most mornings.  His days started early and he was well at work before any of the rest of his family was moving.  If it had snowed the night before, he was the first one to deal with the gully.  While he did use the tractor to plow open the drive, by the time we headed to school, the western Kansas wind had done it's job and drifted it back shut.

Dad was fearless on the roads.  A chronic speeder, he attended safe driving school 3 times.  He actually asked a highway patrol officer what the fastest way to the airport was one time as the officer was writing him a ticket.  Dad never gave a moments thought to the driveway or that his daughter was not quite as fearless in the snow.  His comment to me was always "Just get a good run at it and you should be fine."  This comment along with the frequent "Give it a little more gas." could explain my driving habits today.

I have no idea how many times he had to come back home and pull the Pinto out of the snow drifts but it was usually several times a winter.  I can still vividly see him in his coveralls with the tractor, hooking the chain up to the Pinto and dragging me out of the gully or a ditch along the county road.  He never berated me but upon freeing me from the ditch, I could count on hearing "Just get a good run at it next time."