See that? When does that ever happen? See all those people running around with snow on the ground?
I’ve lived up and down the east coast of the U.S. and it’s my experience that as soon as there is even rumor of a flake falling to the ground, people start running around and panicking. They clear grocery store shelves of milk, bread and toilet paper (what, exactly, do they plan to do for the duration of the “storm?”), disappear into their houses and don’t come out until the transportation department plows a personal path right to their door. (Ironically, they all own SUVs.)
Yet over and over again in on Christmas cards there are people actually walking in falling snow! They don’t look harried or anxious about the white stuff they’re standing on or about the fact that more is falling from the sky. They’re chatting on street corners; they’re strolling to a big white church that’s all lit up as though the parish finance committee hadn’t put a cap on utility spending; they’re waving to people in a big lit-up Victorian houses as though they’re friends of theirs, even though the owners wouldn’t have them in dripping slush all over their oriental rugs and polished pine floors; they’re walking right past deer and happy little woodland creatures gazing at a star in the night sky and not even considering how great they’d look dressed and roasted on their table; they visit cute little shops that are actually open at night (it’s always night, or dusk) and in the snow!
Where is this wonderful place where people go outside in snow?
I realize this is probably a regional thing. I’m sure up in
I also know people who are used to snow don’t actually like it and think people who do like snow just like it because they never get it. That’s why we see so many Canadian cars on I-95 heading south.
Actually, though, when I was growing up there was always snow from December to March. Only I didn’t have to deal with it, only play in it, which I suppose accounts for the idealized opinion I have.
On the other hand, around here we have this:
Ice. All over everything.
It’s pretty for a few hours, like everything is dipped in glass.
It won't scrape off the windows because it's a quarter-inch thick. But it won't last
Then it all melts into a dirty mess.
And that’s what we get to walk in.
2 comments:
I live near the center of my city, where there is a large open mall area. You know, like where they close off several blocks of a street and put in pretty bricks and all sorts of neat things. It's also near the C&O canal ending. The area is decorated very beautifully this time of year. I like to walk through it in the snow. There are others there too, walking and enjoying it.
Only... No one looks at each other, for fear that one or the other might be a mugger. No one waves...for the same reason. And I enjoy being slightly strange when couples go by to watch the female grab her mate harder or switch positions.
...but it's still really pretty here in the snow.
LOL. Good post.
I used to like the snow. We would be outside all the time. Playing hockey at the corner rink or on the street.
Now, as an adult, the only good thing about it is I don't have to cut the grass..
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