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By MARY THERESE BIEBEL CHRIS JOHNSON, JENNIFER LEARN and KEVIN
HOFFMAN Times Leader Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 26, 2000 Page: 1A
Opinions about the snowflakes that quietly formed a thick, frozen quilt over
the area Tuesday were as different as each flake.
Youths, embracing their first true snow day, scrambled to popular
sleigh-riding spots to carve trails in the snow. Adults slogged through a
workday made more difficult by the cold weather and slippery conditions.
Our reporters canvassed the area to gather snippets of the ecstasy – and
agony – the snowfall brought.
***
Seven-year-old Mari Anderscavage found the snow-covered dike at Kirby Park
in Wilkes-Barre so irresistible early Tuesday afternoon, she didn’t want to
wait until her little friends trudged back up with the sledding equipment.
“Can I slide down without a tube?” she asked her older brother, Scott
Anderscavage of Edwardsville, who had taken the day off from work to shepherd
four small children.
“You can try,” he said. “But the snow’s gonna go up your coat.”
Aiming for areas where the orange construction fences were down, the
Anderscavages and more than two dozen other winter enthusiasts found the ride
down the steep dike an invigorating swoosh. Trudging back up was another
matter.
“It’s fun going down, but it’s over too quick. It’s agony coming back
up,” said college student Matthew Lees, 21, of Nanticoke, who lured his
friend and neighbor Trae Stube, 19, out to try a new sport.
Stube, a native of Jackson, Tenn., did not grow up with snow and sleds.
But, red-faced with exhilaration and the cold, he found he liked both.
***
For some younger kids, the combination of a day off from school and piles
of snow spelled economic opportunity.
Samantha Bubb, 11, earned $8 shoveling show for older neighbors in her
North Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, neighborhood. Her friends, on the other hand,
spent the afternoon “watching TV and eating popcorn.”
Bubb planned to spend her wages on bracelets and shoes at the mall, but
first she wanted to clear some of the snow from a narrow alley between her
house and her neighbor’s. This job wasn’t for money, it was for fun.
Bubb hoped to convert the strip into a toboggan run. Bubb doubted her work
would entice her friends to come outside. “They’re too busy eating popcorn.”
***
Snowboarders took over the side yard of Ann Barna’s Clark Lane home in
Plains Township.
Her 16-year-old son Brandon and some of his friends from Coughlin High
School converted the narrow but steep strip of land into a snowboarding chute.
The teenagers had built a jump during last week’s snow storm, but that wasn’t
good enough.
“We needed more speed,” said 14-year-old Josh Findora.
So on Tuesday, they built a second ramp higher up the hill.
Riders got a push start over the first ramp, which launched them down the
hill to a second jump where, to use the proper lingo, they got “air.”
Meanwhile, Ann Barna needed some air. “I usually watch through my patio
door and have a heart attack.”
***
Riding a bike used to be considered a three-season activity. Not anymore,
says Wilkes University marketing major Leland Turner, who took advantage of
Tuesday’s snowstorm to practice for the downhill slalom bicycle race to be
held at Montage Mountain next month.
Even though he was working out without snow tires, Turner was having a
blast as he rode down the Kirby Park dike alongside the sledding crowd.
“I love it,” he said of the winter weather. “I snowboard. I ski. I miss
school for the day.”
***
Mike Campbell, 24, of West Hazleton, tore down Hazleton area side streets
Tuesday afternoon in a three-wheel all terrain vehicle.
Tammy Keris, 30, of Larksville, clung to his back, whooping and giggling.
Campbell said he checked with police and was given the OK to ride –
cautiously – on side streets. The pair planned to shovel snow to make extra
money, but they decided to have some fun until the white stuff piled up.
“I love it, but we should’ve had this snow earlier for Christmas,” Keris
said.
Campbell looked up in the sky and grinned.
“I want more,” he said.
***
Standing inside a dump truck, Dan Antonini hacked at his load with a shovel
to break it apart in the Miners Mills section of Wilkes-Barre.
Delivering coal is spine-stretching work, but the cold and snow make it
worse. “Coal always freezes.”
By 11 a.m., he had finished delivering his fourth load of the day and
estimated he might make 10 more stops by day’s end. Antonini’s jeans were
blackened, but he took pride in his work. “People need coal – that’s all I
know – to heat their house.”
***
Jim Christman, owner of Road’s End Pub & Club in West Hazleton, stood
outside his bar in a colorful T-shirt Tuesday afternoon. He furiously shoveled
snow but pretended he didn’t see it.
“What snow? This wasn’t predicted, so it doesn’t exist.”
Christman didn’t want to bundle up and face the arrival of the season’s
first major snow storm.
“It’s a shock. Last week this time I was in 70-degree weather in Las
Vegas,” he said.
Call Johnson at 829-7226.