I don't live on the east coast, and I've never understood the panic or the "bread and milk" thing, BUT if you live in an area where snow isn't common, it can get dicey, and getting to the store before the snow shows up is generally a nice idea. Unfortunately, you end up there with people in a panic.
OMG! I totally agree with you. I am soooo glad I don't live in MA anymore. The stocking up for Armageddon drove me crazy. For Pete's sake people, there are snowplows. Spring will come. FWIW, except for the 7 years I lived in MA, I've lived in colder places, MN and ON. In neither place do we panic. What is it about the Northeasterners that cause them to go into such a tizzy?
But *are* there adequate snowplows for those areas? I know out here in western WA, there are NOT. And if there are plows, they are generally kept in out of the way storage places that people have to actually get to.
Also out here, it's hilly. So snow really can shut things down, because people here aren't used to driving on flat surfaces in the snow, let alone getting up and down hills.
But I still don't get the bread and milk thing...then again, we only rarely use actually cow's milk, and we get the month's bread and freeze it well in advance...
But after last year's lovely snow, where Seattle was shut down and Tacoma was halfway shut down...but we live just outside of downtown, in walking distance from a store, restaurant, and coffeeshop ALL of which had employees inside of walking distance, and we realized that we had everything we wanted and most things we needed (except for the library!), I'm still HOPING we'll get some snow this winter!
Here in NC, if there is even a mention of the word snow, the freaking out populace runs to
Walmart or the grocery stores and emptys every loaf of bead and gallon of milk from the shelves, which BEGS the question...
We got about 5-6 inches in mid-state NC last night. It's beautiful, but luckily it will be mostly melted and gone by tomorrow/Monday. It IS hilarious watching the folks who grew up around here freak out over the snow.
Then we went across the street to mcDonald's for dinner, but they had CLOSED!! Seriously...McDonalds closed...due to bad weather??? Hilarious! So we went next door to Bojangles, which was open. On our way home we were nearly killed by several drivers who were driving too slow.
We got stuck behind a cardriving 5 mph...literally. And they had their hazard lights on.
I went to chiro school in SC. The schools were closed once for a week AFTER the snow was gone. Which sounded so silly, until it was explained that most of the kids lived in rural areas with heavy tree cover. So there was water on the road which iced up, and the schoolbuses couldn't get in there to pick up the kids. By the time the ice melted, school would have been over anyway, and then it would have started icing up soon after the buses would have been dropping off the kids anyway. It was snow-related, but not actual snow. And it was for safety.
Honestly, if someone is afraid to be driving in conditions but *has to* drive anyway, I'd prefer that they drive how they feel it's safe. I wouldn't want someone to go the speed limit when they are terrified. That's just a horrific accident waiting to happen.
I once flew back into WA in the middle of a rotten snowstorm. Had to practically bribe a taxi driver to let me in the cab...all the cabbies were heading home empty, not willing to risk a fare. He wouldn't take me up the hill to my boyfriend's, he dropped me off at the ATM so I could get money to pay him, then I had to walk the mile or so. I was "saved" by a couple women originally from Colorado, yay for them! But I wouldn't have *wanted* to be in the cab with the WA driver, if he was uncomfortable getting up the slope...
So give them a break; they aren't used to driving in it, and you don't want to push themselves beyond their comfort zone, b/c that's going to make it worse.
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