Saturday, January 25, 2014

Shovels

In Illinois, people "scoop snow." 

When we first moved to Wisconsin, people laughed at us.  "You're going to do WHAT with the snow?!"  You see, people in Wisconsin shovel snow.  Scooping is not an option.

(Pssst: We learned to use the word "shovel" instead of "scoop.")

I have now lived in Wisconsin for more than half my life.  This became quite apparent to me as I was in Illinois shoveling (scooping?) my mom's driveway this week. 

Her shovel didn't work as well as I wanted.  My guts compelled me to go grab a different shovel from the garage.  You know, the kind of shovel that would properly clear the drive.  But Mom owns only one shovel.  One.  For all the different types of snow: deep, shallow, powdery, wet, blowing, packing, or icy.

It boggles the mind.

And then -- next -- it boggled my mind that I had become dependent upon having an array of snow-shoveling tools.

I think I'm a Wisconsin girl now.

4 comments:

  1. I lived in Illinois for 20 years and don't ever remember anyone talking about scooping snow. We always went out to shovel!

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  2. Ditto here; lived in IL for nearly 50 years and never heard of scooping snow....perhaps it's a central IL thing? (After all, Chicagoland and central IL are two very different places!)

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  3. You're right about their being very different places!

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  4. Seven of my 20 years in IL were in Peoria--I don't think we scooped snow there, either. But maybe, having moved from Texas, I was in too much shock to notice what people called it. :-)

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