Hey, Friends:

Here's the bulk of the story I posted on my blog. There's an introduction that draws upon scriptural references and songs about Jesus's love for children, but even this much may be too long for here.

I'll post more about my recording engineer adventures separately.

TWO JOES

        We'd been dodging bullets all winter. Earlier in the season the major snow storms were tracking to our north, heading across upper New England and slamming into Boston before heading out to sea. Then the upper air currents shifted due to the El Nino effect, and the storms all passed to our south, hitting the mid Atlantic states. Southern Connecticut was having a relatively snow-free winter. The storm that brought D.C. more than two feet of snow didn't produce a snow flurry around here. The forecast for yesterday sounded like we would once again escape the heavy snowfall with the center of the storm passing to our north. And then our luck ran out. What was supposed to be a light snow with an accumulation of no more than 3-4 inches dumped a foot of snow on our area. After almost twenty four hours of snowfall, the snow finally stopped and I was getting ready to head out to tackle the driveway and sidewalk. By then, it was dark out, and I was surprised to hear our doorbell ring. When I got to the door, I looked out the window on the top of the door, but couldn't see anyone. When I opened it, there were two little kids standing there looking like they were about to turn into twin pillars of ice. They looked like they were eleven or twelve years old.
        "Hey, Mister, do you want your driveway shoveled?" The smaller of the two boys asked.
"No thanks, I replied. I have a snow blower and I was just about ready to go out to do it myself."
"Aw c'mon." the other boy said, "We've been walking all over the neighborhood and we haven't been able to get a single job. All the big kids got there before us."
I knew what he was talking about. There are several teenagers in the neighborhood who go from door to door, asking to shovel driveways. When the doorbell rang, I figured it was a couple of them. I've always told them that I do it myself, so I think they've given up on ever getting any work from me.
        As the boys stood there in the dark, the wind biting through their light sweat jackets, they were jumping up and down like little jack-in-the-boxes, trying to keep warm.
"Please, mister?" the smaller boy asked. We've been out a long time and nobody will give us work."
"How much do you want, to do the sidewalk and driveway?" I asked.
"I don't know," the smaller boy said," How much can you pay us?"
I stood there looking at the two shivering little kids and I wondered if they could even handle such a heavy snow.
        "I'll give you twenty dollars," I offered.
        "O.k.", they chimed in unison. "That's good," and they waded through the snow on the lawn to get down to the driveway, shovels over their shoulders.
        After about five minutes the doorbell rang again. I knew they couldn't have finished the sidewalk and driveway that quickly. This time it was the bigger kid: bigger, not taller.
"We can't do this big driveway and your sidewalk for twenty dollars," he said. The snow's a foot deep."
They'd done a single shovel-width path down the sidewalk and hadn't gotten very far on the driveway.
        "This is really hard!" the smaller kid called up from the driveway.
I knew it was going to be a big job for them. They weren't much over four feet tall and there's a retaining wall along the sides of our driveway, so they'd have to throw the snow six feet in the air to get it up onto the lawn. With a foot of snow on the shovel, the math didn't work.
"I know the snow's heavy but I have a guy who will plow my driveway for twenty five dollars," I said. It doesn't make any sense to pay you more than twenty dollars. I was on my way out to do the job with my snow blower when you came, so I could do it myself."
"I tell you what I'll do," I said. You can leave that heavy mound of snow by the street that the snow plow pushed into the driveway. I'll give you the twenty dollars to shovel the rest of it."
I know how heavy the snow is that the plow pushes into my driveway and it's a good six feet in from the street. The snow there was over two feet deep and I knew they couldn't handle it. "
O.k.," they said, and I stepped back inside.
Their spirit was willing but their flesh was short.
        Fifteen minutes later, I put on my jacket and a cap, grabbed a pair of gloves and headed down into the garage to get the snow blower. I could see the kids were really exhausted, but they were determined to finish the job. When I opened the garage door there was a strip about six feet wide that they hadn't shoveled yet, right next to the garage door, so I grabbed my snow shovel and started working on it. The retaining wall is at its highest at that end of the driveway and there was another two feet of snow already piled up on top of that. When I started shoveling, the littler kid came over and said, "We can shovel that, Mister."
        "Naw, that's alright! I'll get it. Just finish up what you've got left to do," I told him.
        "No, you're paying us to do this, so I'll help you." "Where can I put the snow?" He said.
        "You have to throw it up over the wall."
        "It'll just fall back down," he replied.
And sure enough, the first shovel full he tried to throw up onto the top of the wall came cascading back down and he almost disappeared into a cloud of snow. He wasn't deterred, though. He just reached back into his thin, shivering frame and took the next shovel full. This time he got it high enough to stay up.
"You know, I could have done this myself, but I remember what it was like when I was a kid and nobody would hire me to work," I said to the heavy set kid.
"Did you used to do this when you were a kid? He asked.
"Sure did. I got paid a dollar or a dollar and a half"
"A dollar?" he asked incredulously. I wouldn't shovel this driveway for a dollar!
"You got to realize this was a long time ago. Candy bars cost a nickel and a double scoop ice cream cone was ten cents. Now a two scoop ice cream cone costs more like two and a half bucks." "I could go to a movie, buy a big soda, a large box of popcorn and a candy bar and have change left over," I said.
He had to stop and think about that, so he just kept shoveling. When I told them I wanted more than a path shoveled on each side of our two cars, the heavier kid turned his attention to that. The little kid called over to him and said "Shovel the snow up to the tires, but don't hit the Car!" Someone had to be the foreman.
"We weren't supposed to get this much snow," the heavier kid said. The weather man really screwed up this time!
"It's tough forecasting the weather around here," I said. "I was a weather man on the   radio for seven years."
"You were on television?" he said, obviously impressed.
"No, on the radio." But I've been on television a lot of times.
"Are you famous? He asked.
"Not really." I said
He paused for a moment and then asked"Were you ever wrong?"
"Hey, if you're a weather man around here, you're wrong a lot," I said. And we both laughed.
By then, we were just finishing up the shoveling, other than the six foot wide strip out by the street. I called the kids over and gave each of them their ten dollars. They seemed happy about it.
        "I want to get your names and phone numbers," I said. "I usually do this myself but if I can't sometime, I can give you a call."
The little kid answered first. "My name is Joe O'Connor and I live on Pleasant View," and he gave me his phone number. The heavier set kid was next. "My name is Joe Myers and I live on Sentinel Hill" and he gave me his number.
        "Two Joes? I said. "That'll make it easy to remember."
Pleasant View and Sentinel Hill aren't right around the corner. No wonder they looked half frozen when they first showed up at our door. They'd been out trying to get someone to hire them for a long time.
"You kids better get on home, you look like you're freezing to death," I said. "Go home and get some rest."
"I'm going home and have a nice cup of hot chocolate," little Joe said.
Big Joe was busy trying to put his ten dollars into a small side pocket half way down the leg of his pants. I watched them as they walked down the street and under the street light. They were talking very animatedly. They'd had a good night. For once the big kids didn't get all the jobs.
        An hour later I went out to attack the snow plowed drift at the end of my driveway. I have an electric snow blower and if it could talk it would have said, "Hey Mister, I can't do all of this, this snow's too heavy." Snow blowers have feelings too, so I worked on the heavy drifts a little at a time, stopping to clean out the snow blower and give it a rest every couple of minutes. It ended up taking me more than a half hour. The two Joes would have collapsed in a heap long before they could move all that snow.
        Just as I was finishing up, I heard the sound of a snow blower. Sure enough, there was one of the teenage boys from the neighborhood coming down the street with a large gas-powered snow blower. He looked over at me and could see that I was just finishing up so he turned the corner and headed down a side street. By then I figured that little Joe was on his second cup of hot chocolate. Chalk one up for the two Joes.
        Suffer the little children.