City follows Scout motto of being prepared

I have lived in three cities in my life: my hometown of Portland, Ore., Beaumont, Texas and now, Amarillo.

Of the three, Amarillo is by far the best-prepared-for-snow-and-ice community of them all. The comparison to Beaumont probably is ludicrous, given that the Golden Triangle city hardly ever gets snow. When it does snow there — which it did once during our time there — the city becomes paralyzed. Portland does get snow most winters. Sometimes it’s severe, as it was during the winter of 1968-69, when I was home for Christmas leave from the Army and spent virtually the entire time cooped up at home with my parents. Man, what a blast that was. But when a major snowfall blankets Portland, that city seems woefully ill-prepared to cope.

Amarillo is different.

This morning, I pulled out of my house expecting to be slipping and sliding all the way downtown — about a six-mile drive. It didn’t happen.

Every major thoroughfare I traveled — Coulter, 45th, Western and Plains — had been cleared of snow by the plows. I looked up on Interstate 40 and saw traffic moving nicely along the highway. Sand trucks had passed through several intersections. A good friend told me he heard the plow trucks moving past his Paramount Boulevard home in the wee hours.

So, I take my hat off to the city for keeping at least my own path to work clear this morning.

It’s good to be so well-prepared.