Yesterday, after my class, a lady from my neighborhood who is nice enough to drive me home told me decisively and little bit nervously: “Let’s go to buy some food-who knows what would happen tomorrow!” I was surprised: “And what will happen tomorrow?”- I asked innocently. “Tomorrow we’ll have snow! You haven’t heard that yet?!!!”. “Snow,-I repeated quietly, looking through a car window on + 18 C streets. -“ Are you sure? And what? Do you want to buy a sled? “ She says: “What do you mean-and what? We’ll be stuck inside until the weather will warm up, nothing will work! We have to buy FOOD!!!”
Well, I decided not to tell her that Russians live the most of the year in snow, and it is not a big deal at all. I nodded and we went to the store. “Look at the people!”- she told me-“such a line!” -pointing at 5 women peacefully stayed in line. “ It’s good we came so early, you can’t even imagine what will happen after 5PM.” Again, I didn’t tell her that she can’t imagine how is a big line in the store looks like, but I nodded again. I followed her while she packed shopping bag with food items. And I grab a gallon of milk myself…
…That was yesterday. Today in the morning everything seemed to be peaceful, my son went to school. My husband’s job called and asked him to bring documents ASAP, before Snow starts. So, he left to drive to his office. Around noon I noticed the first snow flakes through the window, then more and more. Then my husband came back, saying that radio announced that all roads on the west side(exactly where his office is) were in traffic jams from accidents, and everyone should turn back. He came back. Then school called that classes are canceled for today& tomorrow and the kids probably would come home when/if busses would come. We had a dental appointment for tomorrow. The dental receptionist has just called us to tell that they all are leaving the office, canceled all appointments and won’t come back until weather is better. I turned on radio and all they talk about is” SNOW is here!!!” “We’ve got snow!!!” In metallic voice people usually announced very important messages back in Soviet time. All offices let people go home earlier, nothing will work tomorrow.
“What’s wrong with you people,”- I asked my husband. “ Why is this such a big deal?! “ He explained me that because snow is so rare, people never drove in snow and ice, and the Georgia State doesn’t allocate resources to clean the road. In fact it was an episode in 1982 called Georgia Snow Jam, then electricity went out for 5 days. According to this info, that is why the state is in panic.
“Well, I hear you-I kinda hear you”-I added. “By the way, do we have enough food for 5 days, just in case?-he asked me. “We have enough food for 10 days even if I didn’t came to the store yesterday-don’t worry”.
“I see you are always prepared like a boy scout! “ – he smiled. “No-I am always prepared as a Soviet pioneer-which is much better-believe me!”
Marriage With A Foreign Accent 
Hi Yulia! I was in Athens this time last year (sabbatical visit to University of Georgia). Great to read your story and get back to lovely Georgia memories!:)) Us Russians are used to snow, but actually same happens in the UK: the country appears to be unprepared, even though here it snows almost every year! I Hope the situation in Atlanta gets better. And for now enjoy the little reminder of Russia!:)
Hi Julia-Thank you for your comment! Today was a fun day for kids-school was canceled for today and tomorrow and kids were playing in snow. Yesterday some people wasn’t able to get home because of traffic-that wasn’t fun. I really thing that some things could be handled better, especially because snow was expected.