Packing Necessity by Courtney
Courtney Hutton
Someone really should warn you before you ever move in that you will need, at some point in time, a snow-shovel. No, really, if you have a car on campus, you need to bring a snow-shovel when you move in. Well, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, my naïve freshman self did not know that a snow-shovel would ever come in handy. During my first BG winter, I had to learn the hard way.
Let me paint a picture for you. Lot 12, packed with cars and trucks, covered in snow. Even better. Imagine a snow truck clears all of the aisles, inadvertently covering every parked car with at least two feet of snow. This would happen on a weekend that I need to drive my car.
So my friend and I trudge out to the back parking lot with no idea that there is a pile of snow behind my back tires midway up the trunk. There’s no way around it, we need the car. We have to drive down to the tv station to help move equipment for a location shoot we’re doing that night. Being the freshmen in the group, no excuse is acceptable. The rookies have to prove they can be responsible and dependable, which means showing up with your car when you volunteer it. So we try to dig my little Nissan out of it’s snow entrapment with the only thing we have: our feet and hands. Using the neighboring cars to support ourselves, we stuck our feet under my car and attempted to kick the snow out away from the tires. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of slipping and falling. Eventually I got into the driver’s seat, thinking we had done enough that I could power my way out. Good thing my friend stood outside to watch. The only place my car was going was into the side of the Chevy next to me.
With about 6 inches between my rear bumper and the truck on the right, I put my car in neutral and got out. With my friend attempting to guide the back corner, and me angling my car the opposite direction from the front, we tried to push the car over the mound of snow. Again, not the best idea. My jaw hurt for days after slipping and landing on the hood of the car. We returned instead to the kicking method we had employed at first.
After half an hour of this cycle, we actually did manage to get my car out. It’s a wonder they ever let us into the studio considering how much water we had dripping from our jeans and Converse. So lesson learned. Snow-shovels are an integral component of the packing list for college because canvas shoes are very poor substitutes.
Oh, the best part? After the entire parking lot fiasco, we got to the station to discover that they didn’t really need my car after all. All we got were the brownie points for trying.
Courtney Hutton