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FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. Five-year-old Ava Jackson of Fairfield woke up Saturday morning to see snow piling up outside her bedroom window and felt like the world had magically turned into a winter wonderland.
I love the snow. I kept asking for it to come and look how much there is now, said Ava, who opened her mouth wide to catch falling snowflakes on her tongue and picked up large piles of snow to throw at her father, Chuck Jackson, in their Timothy Street driveway in Fairfield.
Jackson kept shoveling, while Ava made snow angels and then persuaded him to push her down a snow mountain on a sled in their backyard.
I grew up in Michigan, but we lived in Florida for 14 years before moving to Connecticut in time for all that snow last winter, said Jackson. I like it. I grew up with it, and I missed snow while we lived in Florida.
But 17-year-old Kenzie Furman said she would have rather been in Florida on Saturday.
The seasons first significant snowstorm, which left 6 to 8 inches on roads across Fairfield County, resulted in Kenzie skidding into a pile of drifting snow on the Post Road in Westport while driving home from work.
Furman, a Staples High School senior, got out of work early from her job at Munsons chocolate shop in Westport. She said she was driving slowly when her 2005 Nissan skidded to the side of the road and became stuck in a large snowbank.
Furman looked like a damsel in distress trying to dig her tires out of the snowbank with a car window brush.
I was driving slow and carefully, but all of a sudden the car just skidded off to the side and into the snow, she said. Its really frustrating.
But then 15-year-old Alex Goven, who was working at the nearby Stanton Miles Vacuum Store on the Post Road, appeared with a large shovel. A few minutes later, the car was ready to go.
It was no big deal. I saw her struggling out here, so I grabbed a shovel and ran out to help, Alex said.
State Police in Bridgeport said local police in Fairfield County towns reported many minor accidents, but none was serious.
Snowplow operators, who lined the Post Road from Fairfield to Stamford clearing commercial parking lots, said that until Saturday they feared it would be a dry winter.
Thank goodness for the snow. I cant make a living without it, said Michael DeMattio, a Weston landscape and masonry contractor whose business includes plowing commercial parking lots.
DeMattio, 50, who operated a plow Saturday to clear the parking lot at J. McLaughlin clothing store in Westport, said he will end up working nearly 24 hours straight. But he isnt complaining.
Ive been in business more than 30 years, and I never saw anything like last winter. It was amazing how much money we made, he said. But this year its kind of late for the first real winter storm. Now I hope it just keeps on coming.
So does 12-year-old Barry Akers, who was trying to make snowballs to throw at his friends on Strawberry Hill Avenue in Norwalk. Finally, theres some snow, Barry said. But this is the soft, mushy kind. I wish it was easier to pack into snowballs.
Just then, a barrage of snowballs hit Barry from behind, and he screamed from the cold snow that slid down his neck and back while his friends roared with laughter.
Hey, how did they do that? he asked. I gotta go and figure it out."
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