Over 24 years of living here and dealing with the stuff, whether on skis, hoisting shovels, trudging to school knee-deep or tearing down hills on toboggans, Andrew Buckley understands its ins and outs.

“Best snow day?” reckons your Friday night starter at quarterback for the Calgary Stampeders. “Probably, I’d say, about Grade 3 or 4. We had two or three feet fall overnight. I remember jumping off the picnic table in my backyard into the snow.

“We got the full day off school. So I did a lot of jumping.

“Had a couple of memorable college games here at McMahon, too.

“But jumping off the picnic table in Grade 3 or 4 was a fun one.”

Here’s hoping Friday eclipses even that on the merriment-metre.

The ‘first’ anything in a life, in a career, tends to be a keepsake. A signpost.

First day at school. First car. First kiss. First can’t-miss concert tickets on the floor. First day on the job. First shot at parenthood.

First start in the CFL.

Buckley talks to Coach Dickenson during a game in September (Photo by David Moll)

“I’m looking forward to it,’’ says Buckley, who Friday becomes the first homebrew QB to open for the Stamps since Greg Vavra back in 1985.

“I’m sure there’ll be a little bit of nerves. But that’s only normal, natural. I’ve spent a long time dreaming of this opportunity.

“Now it’s finally here.

“Right now, I’m just trying to be as prepared as I can so when we step on the field, we’ll be moving the ball.

“It’s a big deal, your first start.”

That it is. No one, after all, grows up dreaming of being the relief pitcher or the backup goalie or or the straight man in the doubles act or the guy who knows the guy who gets the girl.

“I’m stoked for him,’’ says wideout Anthony Parker, Buckley’s old U of C Dinos collaborator.

“It’s cool for him to have command of the huddle, have command of what’s going on on the field, to be the one pulling the trigger.

“This is what everybody wants – the opportunity to go out there and be The Guy, right?

“I have no doubt that he’s going to go out there and play like the stud he is. Everybody else does in here, too.”

Buckley’s dad, Dr. Richard, was on a nine-hour India to Frankfurt leg, en route home from a conference when the 24-year-old third-year pro turned in his coming-of-age performance, this past July 29 at McMahon Stadium.

That night, Buckley the Younger came off the pine to toss his first pay-for-play TD pass – to Parker, fittingly – and finish a spotless 10-for-10 for 106 yards in that 60-1 defilement of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Buckley with his mom and sister after he got significant playing time against Hamilton in July (Photo by Eric Boldt)

No such professional commitments will be keeping the family patriarch from missing this one.

“Oh, yeah, he’ll be there,’’ assures Buckley. “My family’s pretty excited for this one, as soon as they heard. They’re all gonna be up there, bundled up, trying to keep warm but cheering loud no doubt.”

That support will drift down to the Stampeder sidelines, too, no doubt.

“We’re excited to see him start a game,’’ says QB coach Ryan Dinwiddie. “We want to see him run a full game plan. It’ll be a good reference point for him and us to see where he’s at, to take that next step to being the player that we expect him to be.

“With a veteran quarterback, you can put a lot on his plate and expect him to execute it, where, with a younger guy. do that and you might overwhelm him.  At the same time, you don’t want to make it too simple for him because you want to get a true read.

“So I think we’re looking at a happy medium – give him some thing we think can help him be successful but don’t overload him.

“He’s thrown well in the snow. A lot of other quarterbacks struggle, mentally sometimes, going into a game with snow. But he obviously played in weather like this when he was in college here. I don’t think it’ll affect him much at all.”

This seasonal curtain-dropper at McMahon against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers shapes up as a strange affair.

The Stamps haven’t dropped three in a row since 2007, the year before John Hufnagel took charge. Yet the main concern, quite naturally, is to exit unscathed physically, rest those who need resting while maintaining as high a degree of sharpness as possible.

“Does it matter that much?’’ repeats Parker. “Well, at the end of the day, we’ve got to win the game after this one. That one matters that much.

“But this is still important for us. From a mental standpoint. Which is why giving Andrew the start shows the confidence they have in him.

“I’ve never lost three in a row in my time here, so that would be uncharted waters for me, for most of us. I mean, no one wants to go on a three-game slide, then sit for a week, especially when you’re used to the taste of winning.

“You always hear the saying: What you’ve done is what you’re gonna do.

“That’s so true in sports. We want to go into the bye on a little bit of high. And Andrew can help us get there.”

Back at the helm from the first snap. On his familiar carpet at McMahon. In the white stuff.

No place on this earth Andrew Buckley would rather be.

“It’s just a matter of finding a rhythm,’’ he says of the weather conditions. “I’ve played in this stuff – a lot worse than this – before. It changes things a little bit but you’ve just got to go, execute the game plan and protect the football.’’

Inside the McMahon players lounge, kitty corner to the locker room, Buckley nods past the window to the white stuff falling outside.

“Been playing in the snow forever.

“Love it.”