Kisaiah D. Brown, At the first hint of snow, some Baltimore-area residents scramble to the supermarket, clamoring for their bread, milk and toilet paper. Others simply call Eddie's,

They phone for steak fillets and crab cakes, a diet soda or two, or maybe just eggs and milk. Whatever the request, Wes Hardiman, a 27-year-old deliveryman for the Eddie's of Roland Park supermarket on Charles Street, is ready to pull on his winter gloves and oblige.

Yesterday, Hardiman was one of the hundreds of delivery people who braved the perilous weather and the area's daffy drivers so other residents could stay inside, out of the snow. While many residents ditched jobs and school, or decided to "work from home," Hardiman and others rang doorbell after doorbell, bearing food, gifts and other sundries.

"As long as it's not Armageddon, we're out here," said Kisaiah D. Brown, a United Parcel Service driver.

In his white Eddie's van and blue Eddie's button-down shirt, Hardiman drove on icy roads and trudged through shin-high snow, handing over blue bags of groceries with a smile. He was busy, but not as much as he was on Wednesday, he said, when dozens of forward-thinking residents called to get their groceries delivered.

"We just got bombarded," said Hardiman, who lives in Dundalk.

"Yup, any time there's a mention of snow, people panic," said his brother, Marty, who dispatches Eddies's orders, and who said he is writing a screenplay about a grocery -- about delivery customers and "a guy who gets forced into being a driver."

Marty Hardiman stood in the back of the store, scrutinizing his master list for customers who canceled their orders because of the snow -- mostly schools and business groups -- and for those who still wanted their food.

"We're trying to stay on top of the situation," he said.

As long as any of the current employees can remember, the 58-year-old grocery has been delivering orders for office lunches, for the wealthy and time-conscious, to the elderly who enjoy the deliveryman's visits, and to those who just don't want to make a shopping trip.

Back when the grocery was a chain of co-ops, employees used to make the rounds in black-and-orange trucks, said the store's front-end manager, Mark K. Friedman. Now they have the white van with the classy, cursive logo.

It's not a vehicle one would peg as snow-friendly. But on the roads yesterday morning, Wes Hardiman maneuvered through slips and slides, skids and stalls, to deliver his produce safe and sound.

To his knowledge, no Eddie's delivery van has ever gotten stuck in the snow.

"I don't want to be the first one," he said.

And despite some close calls -- try driving a van up a snowy hill when someone ahead stops -- as of yesterday afternoon, Hardiman had avoided that ignominy.

UPS trials

He was doing better than UPS driver Brown.

With 200 packages still in the back of his truck, Brown was stuck on Canterbury Road in Baltimore, rocking the vehicle forward and back to no avail.

"It's like hell," said the 24-year-old, laughing at his predicament. "A cold hell."

Since leaving the Catonsville UPS headquarters that morning, Brown had been trying to deliver packages up and down University Parkway and Greenway, navigating stalled cars and oblivious drivers. He had carried dozens of packages inside, struggled with the handcart that gets unmanageably slippery in the snow.

"And then there's upset customers worried about why their package isn't on time, why it's wet," he said. "But the majority of my customers are understanding and reasonable," he added quickly.

Brown finally moved from his snowbound position, helped by University Parkway resident Marya A. Zeigler, who ran for her shovel when she saw the big brown truck's predicament.

"I looked outdoors and saw he wasn't making much progress," she said.

Brown made it to 39th and Charles streets before he got stuck again.

On York Road in Towson, the Pizza Palace restaurant was doing twice as many deliveries as usual. One of its deliverymen was stuck at least once in his Isuzu Amigo.

"I have no idea how he got out," said assistant manager Mona Sarhangi as she slid a pie into the oven.

She said the restaurant was flooded with requests for pizza and beer.

"Nobody wants to go outside," she said.

That included Hardiman. Although the smile never left the Eddie's deliveryman's face, he sighed as he grabbed his gloves in preparation for yet another snowy trek to a front door. The previous delivery consisted of two steaks, two diet Pepsis and a quart of 2 percent milk. This time he had 10 bags to carry.

"It's pretty, I'll give it that," he said, looking out the van window at the snow-drenched trees. "But it's best to stay home and enjoy it from your window."

Taking the cake

His final delivery, at least until he reloaded, was a salad and chocolate-iced birthday cake for Rachel Moore, a freshman at Goucher College. Moore's parents in Pennsylvania had placed the order for their daughter's 19th birthday, which was yesterday.

Hardiman slipped through the snow as he went from building to building on campus, trying to find some way to get the cake to the teen-ager, whose dorm building was locked. Nobody was answering her phone. He finally he got in contact with Moore around 1 p.m., and he darted back through the snow to his van to pick up the package.

Moore came down from her dorm room in her sweat shirt to collect her goodies, and thanked Hardiman as she peeked at the chocolate and purple icing.

"Sorry," she said, rubbing her eyes. "I just woke up."