Roseville Blogger: Snow Removal "Pay it Forward"

In winters with more precipitation, I would pass my snow-blowing
time by allowing my mind to wander, and muse over current events with the
family, problems that needed solving, even hatching crazy ideas for my kid’s
favorite pastime, the Roseville Area Youth Hockey Association.

Last week, I was actually (oddly enough) looking forward to my very first opportunity to spend a little time working the mental floss while performing my snow removal duties.  

As I was walking out of the house, I told my kids that I would be out for a bit, and was going to take care of a couple of our neighbor’s driveways too.

“Why are you going to do that?” one of them asked. 

“Well,” I said, “because they are not there, or can’t take care of it themselves.” 

He then asked “Are you going to tell them that you did it?” 

I am not sure why, but the question bothered me. Of course I am not going to tell them I thought. But I kept my thoughts to myself and told him that I did not plan to let them know it was me, and set out to conquer the entire two inches of snow we had received earlier in the day.

As I went about the business of clearing the monster snowfall, I kept tossing my son’s question around in my head – “Are you going to tell them that you did it?”  Why would he ask that? 

Why did it even bother me that he asked? It never occurred to me to let someone know I was doing this, but nor had I ever really given it much thought. But now I had the idea stuck in my head, and the time to consider the notion.

As the motor roared and the snow fell safely beyond the driveway’s edge, I came to the conclusion that I did these things with the idea or hope that someday, someone might do the same for me. And if not for me, then someone else in need. Not that I wanted anyone to owe me personally or I was making a deposit in some sort of snow removal bank account, but rather that at some point someone will remember a kind deed that was done on their behalf, and want to do the same for others.

When the driveways had been cleared of their white obstruction and my snow thrower was safely tucked back into the garage I returned to the warm house and a follow-up conversation with my boys.

As with most of our conversations, when it was over I am not sure if they learned more from me, or if I learned more from them.

And all of that came from one two-inch snowfall.