Looks like we are finally getting our first panic-in-the-grocery-stores storm this evening. The weather wonks are comparing conditions to a storm almost exactly three years ago, which started with rain after morning rushhour, then quickly became a disaster when the temps plummeted in a couple of hours and left everything coated thickly with ice. Then it started snowing. When people finally got home, they had to stay for several days, and find ways to amuse themselves.

So we decided to see how Hammockfolk like to spend a snowy weekend, and here’s what they said:

Megan Goodchild: When I was growing up (in Chicago – where we rarely stayed home because of “snow days”), us kids would make snow tunnels at recess and then race through them. But now that I’m a grown up (and a big baby about driving in bad weather,) I like to stay home and let my cats outside to play in the snow. If the snowflakes are big enough they try to eat them before they hit their fur.

Emily McMackin: I’m a little bit of a wimp when it comes to cold weather, so I prefer to curl up in my electric blanket, drink hot chocolate and watch my favorite chick flick!

Barbara Mathieson: Leave work when that first snowflake makes an appearance. Make a pot of hot tea and read. Walk in the snow with Neyland. Build a snowman and make snow angels. When I was a child, my mother would make snow ice cream for us. I think she added milk, sugar and vanilla to lots of snow. How it stayed frozen I don’t know, but it was very good. I still remember the taste.

Barbara Greenfield: Sledding! I will definitely send you pics tomorrow if I can go! The weather is also a perfect excuse to stay in for a movie marathon.

Laura Creekmore: Far and away my favorite thing to do on a snowy day is go sledding. I grew up in a little town in Tennessee where everything shut down for an inch of snow, and some of my favorite childhood memories are when my dad came home from work early and we all sledded down the hill on our street, down the driveway and into the woods in our yard until it was so dark we finally had to go in. Of course you didn’t feel the cold.

My second-favorite thing to do (believe it or not) is go to the grocery store. I always loved to be at my dad’s store the day before a big snow was predicted. Busy days are the most fun times to work at a grocery store…how fast can you get folks out the door? Everyone is excited about the snow (at least in the South, where it comes so rarely) and so it’s fun to be around a lot of folks who are all focused on “surviving” through their day or two of being snowed in.

Bill Hudgins: I’ve always loved going out side to listen to it snow, especially at night. The soft hiss of flakes is a sound like no other. We have a big pasture back of our house with a creek running past it into Old Hickory Lake, so it’s fun to tramp down to watch the ducks and geese ignore the weather entirely. Making comfort food – pancakes, waffles, soup, chili – and watching TV or movies complete the day. We used to build snowmen, but now I’d rather read old Calvin and Hobbes strips about snowmen – they had the right idea.

Susie Garland: My daughter, Emma, and I have a tradition of going on night walks after a good snow.