Where Are The Kids With Shovels In The Hudson Valley?
Am I dating myself again? Just a thirty-something wondering what has happened since 'the good ol'days?'
There are a lot of things that I thought would happen when I 'grew up and became an adult' - boy was I wrong about most of them.
Watching too much Desperate Housewives had me thinking that when you moved into a new house, your neighbors would leave fresh baked muffins on the front steps...didn't happen to me on move-in day, but a few months later, CHECK!
I also thought that during snowstorms the neighborhood kids would fight to be the first to knock on your door and offer to shovel your driveway...
I'm still waiting for that one.
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Lack Of Kids Looking To Make A Few Dollars During Hudson Valley Snowstorms
I grew up less than two miles from where I currently live today - three roads and a town line divide me from my childhood home, but between those roads and across the line from Fishkill to Wappingers, I think the kids with shovels must have gotten lost.
I'm a single mom with a seven year old who tends to add MORE snow to the driveway when she comes outside attempting to help me shovel our moderately sized driveway. Any bit of help I can get during snowstorms is so incredibly appreciated.
Not once, ever, in nearly five years, has anyone ever knocked on the door asking if I needed the driveway shoveled. I remember growing up the doorbell ringing constantly in advance of storms with teens looking to make a few bucks when the snow hit town, and then day of a storm the kids walking the neighborhood with shovels in tow.
My parents even had, gasp, a list of 'kids to shovel' in the paper phone book. These days it probably SHOVEL JOEY in my mom's cellphone.
I always have cash ready, and of course I think to myself, well when they come they'll probably want me to cash app them the money, and that's fine too.
So what I'm trying to get at here, is that I feel this is a missed opportunity for kids on school days to make a few easy bucks off some people who could just use an extra hand in the driveway.