Luke Skywalker
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People in the know called it "historic."
It was billed as Biblical, wrath-of-God stuff.
Schools in New York City shut for only the tenth time in 50 years.
We went to bed expecting the worst and woke to a run-of-the-mill, they-canceled-school-for-this snowfall.
OK, they got us.
On Twitter Tuesday morning, John Green, the best-selling author of "The Fault in Our Stars" quipped: "This morning in Indianapolis we've had a dusting of snow, or as New Yorkers call it, THE GREATEST CALAMITY OF OUR TIME."
On Facebook, the reactions ranged from the funny to the philosophical.
Kate Powers, a director and facilitator for the Katonah-based Rehabilitation Through the Arts, wrote: "Mayor DeBlasio, when you asked me to prepare for something worse than we've ever seen, did you mean my sister, my husband and me all working from home on the same day?"
For the philosophical, consider the perspective of Garrison trombonist Walter Barrett, who woke to 4 or 5 inches of snow, not the foot-and-a-half-minimum in the forecast.
" If it had been a hurricane headed this way, instead of a blizzard, nobody would be complaining that it wasn't as bad as predicted. You're safe, and you took precautions. Just saying. (Mike drop....)"
At least one forecaster was penitent.
Facebook's "Weather Dork," who watched the models and saw heavy snowfall across a wide swath in our future, pulled no punches.
"I don't like excuses or a lengthy defense. I was wrong. I'm sorry. The scientific explanation is that the storm was farther east and rising air to the east and west of the Hudson Valley made the air sink in the middle. Sinking air prevents precipitation. ... My best teachers are my mistakes. I will learn from this."
His followers were understanding.
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Snow totals for Westchester, Rockland, Putnam
One opportunistic group is hoping to parlay all that pre-storm hoarding to good use.
Rockland's People to People took to Facebook with the following: "Do you have extra food from overstocking for the NonBlizzard of 2015? If so, People to People can use your non perishables. More than 50 Rockland County families come to People to People every day for help in putting food on their tables. They are closed today but accept donations of food from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. They are also encouraging folks to collect cans of soup at their SOUPER BOWL parties and donate the soup to PtoP."
Tom and Janet Peyton of Croton didn't expect to be heading into a movie at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, but there they were.
Tom, who is working on the Second Avenue Subway, and Janet, a Metro-North retiree, were expecting to awaken to two feet of snow and stay inside. They were not disappointed to see considerably less, and decided to venture out. Their movie choice could have been an alias for yesterday's forecast: "The Imitation Game."
Jane Teixeira and her family attend a showing of "Paddington" in White Plains Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 after a storm closed schools. (Video by Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News)
Rob Riley of Nanuet pushes his son, Matthew Riley and Chris Surace, both 12, down the hill at Veterans Memorial Park in Orangeburg Jan. 27, 2015.
(Photo: , Peter Carr/The Journal News)
No one complained about the lesser snow fall at Veterans Memorial Park in Orangeburg on Tuesday as boys and girls rough-housed or gingerly slid down the hill, depending on their thirst for excitement.
"We wanted to make sure the kids enjoyed their day off," said father Rob Riley of Nanuet, between pushing the boys several feet so they picked up some speed before descending. "All their friends are here. This is just like school. This is what we used to do. I really love it as a kid being outside on days like this."
Rocco Surace, his face masked with a hat and hood, said getting an unanticipated day off from Pfizer worked out for him.
"This give the kids the opportunity to be kids and have fun," he said.
The dads took a few runs, too.
While Riley, a financial investor, and Surace, both in their mid-40s, were going old-school on an old-fashioned Flexible Flyer sled with the steel steering in front, today's generation enjoyed soft rubber tubes, plastic body surfers and bucket sleds.
Many of the boys – including Riley, Surace and Vinny Nicolucci and Bill DeSapio – were members of the Clarkstown Star baseball team.
Better than school? Matt Riley, said, "Yeah just by a landslide."
The draw was similarly strong on the great hill behind White Plains High School, packed with locals and out-of-towners on Tuesday.
"They were excited there was going to be a blizzard," said Rachael Roberts of Scarsdale, who brought her three children, Cameron, 5, Benjamin, 8, and Eleanor, 10, out sledding with her husband Greg. "They were disappointed it wasn't really a blizzard."
The Roberts family made a day of it: snowball fights, snow forts, then sledding.
"They were out playing in the snow at 8 a.m.," Rachael Roberts said, while Greg and Cameron made their way down the hill on a tube. "They were jumping up and down when the first reports were coming in."
Emil Ekambaram and William Aspinwall, both 12 and from Croton, sipped hot chocolate and played cards at The Black Cow coffee shop in Croton Jan. 27, 2015. The boys, students at the Pierre Van Cortlandt Middle School were among the thousands of school aged children who had no school due to the winter storm.
(Photo: , Seth Harrison/The Journal News)
At the Black Cow coffee shop in Croton, plenty were just killing time, the day after the snow.
Early Tuesday afternoon, 12-year-olds William Aspinwall and Emil Ekambaram were playing Go Fish at a table up against the window. The two walked there, and did not have much going on.
"We don't really have any definite plans," William said. "We might go sledding later."
Not everyone was so lucky.
Chris Labbate and his 8-year-old son, Devin, were both catching up on some work. Chris, a benefits consultant, was on his laptop, while Devin read a "Magic Treehouse" book for school.
"It's a day off without being a day off," the elder Labbate said. "You've got to work still, got to get some stuff done today."
When the blizzard that wasn't gave Gary Kogan of Croton and his son Quan a snow day, they spent the morning together playing cards at the Black Cow coffee shop in Croton. (Video by Seth Harrison/The Journal News)
At Home Depot in West Nyack on Tuesday, assistant store manager John Plank was assessing the run-up's impact on his inventory.
"We sold out of salt and any kind of salt, snow blowers, generators and snow shovels yesterday," he said. "Sunday and Monday were huge days for us. We bought special shipments and we still sold out. The demand was huge."
Plank said more salt and shovels are on the way, but not many snow blowers.
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"We're midway through the season," he said.
At the Orangeburg Stop & Shop, assistant manager Sheryl Baez said her store was "busier than I've ever seen" and that trucks to restock the shelves were delayed until late Tuesday or Wednesday.
In Nyack, most shops were still closed in the early afternoon and there were few people walking on Main Street.
Khalid Chak, owner of McManus Pharmacy, had only one customer between 9 a.m. and noon: an emergency prescription for a cancer patient.
"It's never been so slow," said Chak, who's owned the pharmacy for 26 years.
Even though he drove 17 miles from his home in Paramus, N.J., he wasn't complaining about the lack of business.
Joe and Arlyn Monterey, owners of Herb Lack Paints and Hardware in Nyack, had few customers Tuesday morning due to the snow storm but said it was their duty to open.
(Photo: Khurram Saeed/The Journal News))
"If I can help one person, that's good enough," he said.
Down the block, Joe and Arlyn Montery, the married owners of Herb Lack Paints and Hardware, sat in a store empty of clientele.
They were busy on Monday when most people stocked up on rock salt, shovels and sleds.
"We knew there was going to be snow today but we still have to open," Joe Montery said.
While there were a couple of pizzerias, delis and coffee shops open, several shop owners hung signs on their doors informing customers they would be closed for the day - and some even figured on Wednesday too - because of the blizzard.
Nora Ackley, a waitress at Johnny Cakes, said the restaurant's staff wasn't intimated by the snow. She and two cooks made it in, serving up hot breakfast and lunch to grateful diners.
"People seem fine now, happy, and glad we're open," Ackley said.
Staff writers Matt Coyne, Steve Lieberman, Khurram Saeed and Karen Roberts contributed to this article.
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