I am sitting here in the office looking out at the leftovers of our latest ice/snow event.  Seeing the sun shining and causing the snow and ice to sparkle has brought back memories of three boys hunting rabbits with BB guns and trying to sled down Cedar Tree hill and mostly just getting so cold we couldn’t feel our hands and feet.  No one tells you when you are young that snow melts in your hands and soaks your gloves causing your fingers to freeze.  I remember trying to get outside and get snow for snow cream before the soot from the coal stove ruined it.  I remember a few magical days when it snowed unexpectedly and school was cancelled.

One snowy day that sticks most in my mind was when I was a teenager and Dad and one of the boys a couple of houses up the holler from us and my brothers and I went looking for a Christmas tree.  We went as far up an old mining road as we could and started walking.  It was snowing some when we lift, but it began to snow even more while we were walking.  I remember being enveloped in a cocoon of these enormous snowflakes and silence.  The snow was falling so thickly and the flakes were so big that is seemed like the snow was eating all the sound.  The loudest sound was the blood in my ears, you know, that seashore sound.  I don’t remember the tree we got or much else about that Christmas, just that one time I was with all those people and still alone, just me and the snow and the silence.

Another time was when the kids were little.  We were at my parent’s place and it snowed just enough to cover the ground, but we all went sledding anyway.  We sledded until we were so cold that our extremities were numb.  My daughter started to cry and our older son had finally had enough so I took one last run with our youngest (he was probably about 18 months old).  Bad decision.  His few extra pounds were just enough to send us on past our stopping place and over a small drop off (maybe a couple of feet).  We hit just hard enough for me to feel it all the way up my spine.  The sled went one way and Ben and I went another.  He had a blast.  I still have a spot on my butt that has no feeling (dramatic license alert).

When we lived in Florida, snow was a novelty, it was fun because we could go back home to the sun.  Now that I have to go to work and drive in it, I’m tired of it.  It is fun to watch my wife throw things so the dog can go fetch them in the snowy front yard, but I want to sit in the warmth and have a refreshing beverage and just watch them play in it.  Back then, I saw snow and thought play time, now I see snow and think how nasty it is to drive in and how much I long for a beach and an umbrella and a book and a cool beverage.  Oh well, maybe mañana.

playa aquí vengo (beach, here I come)