"God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen ... Behind the Amber Lights"
When I was a little girl, my family lived in Portage Lakes, in Akron, Ohio. When hard snowfalls came, we watched our lakefront home transform into a winter wonderland.
Lucky us, we got to swim, and ice skate, and become hard-bodied teens while staying right in our own front yard! The year-round recreation was great.
But, I will never forget watching out the window, across the frozen lake, through dense snowstorms, as the white stuff pounded down in the deep silence of the darkest nights.
And, I also remember the feeling of blessed relief hearing the snow blades come shoveling, as the sound loudly echoed across that lake, to our house!
The amber lights could be seen, flashing brightly against the otherwise dark of night. Amber lights!!
They were coming!! We knew we'd be safe from the storm.
I still watch out my window,at the guy who plows the snow where I live. The same feeling of "rescue and relief"repeats itself to me, as it did over a half-centruy ago, when I was a little girl.
Isn't it something? Whether we're at home, or on the road, or standing in an airport ... or anywhere else ... those amber lights still tell the old story. "Help is on the way."
I am really thankful for living here in the West, where the sun is usually high and bright. But, on those days, when record snowstorms sock us in ... I travel back in thought to the days way back when, and the flashing amber lights, that yet today, bring that same feeling of solace and safety.
Our hero, at Canyon Point Cottages, in Golden, is "Scott." I now call him "Sir Scott!" He, and his mighty band of hand-shoveling students, (mostly from the Colorado School of Mines) made the recent back-to-back blizzards safer and kinder to the residents here.
And, there's more out there everywhere! The men behind the amber lights!
No matter what neighborhood you live in, or what road you are on, or where travelers are waiting to fly in or out ... there, on the tarmacs, highways, and bi-ways, they work. Often, with little food and sleep, they are there, making it as safe as possible for all of us.
Hats off to their dogged tenacity and thoughtfulness to their fellow man! (And, woman, and children, and beasts of the home and the field!)
Whew! Good show! Thank you, one and all !