Sitting here watching the snow, I remember w-a-a-a-y back in the day when I had moved to the midwest and experienced my first real snow. I had gone to Minnesota to stay with my in-laws. My husband followed later. About this same time, pre-Thanksgiving, I woke one morning to deep, midwest snow.
Being barely 20, if that, and a southern Calif girl, I was entranced. It was beautiful to look at and fun to play in. I was still too young to realize that it was freakin' cold out there. I did learn to avoid driving from November into May. I had one experience on black ice my first year and the following year, when I was pregnant, I had the experience of not being able to find the sides of the road ... that was enough for me. We had moved to a house of our own by then and the neighbor, a girl my age, taught me to can and we stored foods for the winter, made our own baby foods, and I baked bread or made tortillas. No need for us to drive, her husband managed a grocery store and he'd bring home milk and whatever else any of us needed.
I wasn't into winter sports, didn't have the ankles for ice skating, but I could throw a mean snowball and roll a mighty fine snowgirl . We'd go to St. Paul for the Winter Carnival. I'd watch while everyone went skating and then we'd check out all the ice sculptures and eat our way around the carnival and stop at White Castle on the way home. Being from California, I'd never heard of White Castle (they're these one-fourth size hamburgers). It was a really special and fun time, I also found I enjoyed ice-fishing with my father-in-law. You put up a little hut (or not), dig a hole in the ice, drop a line and hope something down there is not only awake but is hungry. I did a lot of fishing, I don't remember doing any catching.
When my two oldest children were babies, they loved to play in the snow in our front yard. They enjoyed "snow"cones that I'd drizzle with homemade fruit syrups (no yellow snow). We had a Springer Spaniel that thought the babies were 'her' pups. She drew the boundaries in the yard and watched over them with me. If they looked like they were going to toddle beyond her set boundary, she'd grab their diaper or snow pants and drag them back. She was great with them. I enjoyed those winters.
Some years ago, Grandpa & I took my son, his wife, and our two granddaughters up the road toward Yosemite. We were living in the Valley then and made it a winter weekend outing. Fortunately it was a snowy weekend. We spent the night at a little inn and Grandpa and the girls made a snow midget. Grandpa got too cold to stay out long enough to make a full size snowman. The girls went down to the main building and warmed up in the jacuzzi. The next day we went next door to 'the hill' and the girls and their parents used a round toboggan thing to slide down the hill. The granddaughters had never seen snow and their dad didn't remember being in the snow. Everyone had a great time. The youngest still enjoys snow sport.
I don't have any great desire to be out in it anymore except maybe to take some pictures and then not for very long; I get too cold too soon. Katie's no longer fond of walk-abouts in the snow either. Guess we're both getting old. We're perfectly happy sitting in front of the fire watching the snow through the window. And we have months ahead of us to do just that. Usually it doesn't snow too often and not for too long. The again, when I bought the house, they told me I'd only get a "dusting" of snow. I'm so gullible.
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