Ji-Soo and Ginna Try to Leave Brooklyn: Take Three

We waited and waited. We told ourselves that if the plow came by 7 p.m. we could still make it to Rochester. At 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday night the plow came by. We could see it from the window of Ji's living room and were very excited and talked about the plausibility of leaving for Rochester at this hour. We decided it would be a dangerous headache to drive all night let go of the idea of a trip to Rochester (this was difficult for me).

We looked out the window and saw that the plow had come to a stop on the corner and had not moved for five minutes. Across the intersection from the plow we saw a group of about 15 Hasidic men congregated in the middle of the street. What were they doing? I hoped that they were protesting the lack of public services. Ji and I decided to put on our layers and wander out to investigate.

The situation on the street was this: the plows (we could see now that there were two, one behind the other) could not pass through the intersection because on the other side the intersection a mini van was stuck in the snow, dead, halfway into the street. Close to 30 Hasidic men and young boys were swarmed around the van, pushing and rocking, hoping to move it back into its spot to allow the plows to pass. While this project was in in the works, the plow driver was having a discussion with a group of 6-8 Hasids on the corner. Imagine this:

Hasidic man, very think Yiddish accent: "What about in '96? You guys had everything plowed by the next day?"
Plow driver, very think NYC accent: "We are short 600 men! We had 600 more men back then. We're just short men."

There were very few other people on the street and being surrounded by so many Hasidic men gave an odd feeling of being in the 1800's. I'm glad Ji had his phone and the wherewithal to use it.


Group work getting the mini van back in place.


Waiting. The plow driver is the man across the street dressed in green.

Finally, the mini van is moved. Finally, close to 9 p.m. the plows move. And Genius Ji-Soo takes a video.