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Friday, February 02, 2007Tennessee MicrosnowIt snowed last night. And I use the term lightly. When I first moved to the South, I used to roll my eyes at the poor, Tennessee children who would gleefully grab their sleds and toboggans and run through the scant inch of white stuff on the ground. They didn't know what snow was, I'd scoff! The tips of grass blades would still be showing, yet the schools were closed and the children were acting as though they'd been given a free pass to Arctic Wonderland. Now, almost nineteen years later, it's my own children who are running gleefully into the barely-there snow at 7:00 in the morning, hoods up and gloves on, ready to revel in the storm of the season. I can't roll my eyes at them, though, because now I understand that, through their eyes, this is a lot of snow (not quite two inches today). They didn't grow up trudging through snow to their knees, or climbing up plowed piles of the white stuff that were tall enough to rank as small mountains. My children are born-and-raised Southerners, and they have no clue. How pathetic! As a diehard Yankee, I should have tried harder to drag them up North for a few winters so they could experience real snow. The kind that makes you dizzy when you look up at it. The kind that sticks to your eyelashes. The kind that actually covers the ground so that you can't tell where the path is or when the sidewalk ends. Problem is, I grew a thin skin very quickly after leaving Pennsylvania. Trips to my parents' home in the winter were akin to some sort of torture -- an entire week of teeth-clonking, butt-numbing cold. So we limited our visits to the summer months, and my children missed out on their only chance for real snow. So this morning we had hot cocoa with freshly whipped cream, and the digital cameras were out in full force. Barbie families emerged in winter gear and went out back for a romp in the snow. Spencer's bright red jacket darted back and forth across the white background. I even spent a minute or two outside, but it wasn't to play -- I had to roll the garbage bin out front. My sneakers were coated in snow. It's not real snow if you can wear sneakers in it. Still, it was pretty for a while. The light filtering in the windows has that snow-tint to it, which is far more pleasant than your average gray, low-cloud, February day in Middle Tennessee. Next year, I may have to ship my children up to Canada for a couple of weeks. (Snickle? Are you listening?) I'll derive great pleasure when, upon their return, they will join me in rolling their eyes at the hapless Southern children trying to make snowmen out of a centimeter of insubstantial fluff. I will be vindicated. Labels: life, Southernisms |
About Me
I am: Mother to five stunningly individualistic children... Writer of young adult fantasy... Passionate advocate for Women At Home... Madly in love with my husband... In need of Organic Gourmet Chocolate on a regular basis. I've got a Paypal account if you'd like to contribute to the cause....
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7of my readers are feeling chatty:
Hello Jillian, Thank you for your lovely comment. Congratulations on your pregnancy, I have never heard of cabbage craving, but I did crave the smell of windowlene (a cleaning product) and would buy bottles of the stuff and clean windows just to be near the smell!!!!
There is a huge issue over snow in our country. When I was little we had a " a good fall" of snow in the winter, not like the ones your describe, but nonetheless it was proper snow. It never held the traffic up and only after two or three days of the stuff were service and schools closed down. My children have never witnessed it. Now we get a bit of snow and everything goes into panic and like you described the tips of the grass is still showing!
Look after yourself and please visit again
Fizz
I remember one day the snow fell and was half-way up the car door, and we still had to go to school. The bus wouldn't come get us, but we had to go anyway.
Snow is the Devil!
I don't like shoveling it, I don't like driving in it, I don't like walking in it.
I love Arizona!
We had a snow fall like that here in VA last week. My kids were out in it thinking it was the best. I shovled, or rather scraped because there was not enough to acutally shovel, the driveway and took pictures of them sledding. With grass showing through the snow.
LOL
We've had 2 days of snow this season and neither have been "real snows" I remember the snowstorm of '78, now that was snow! We made tunnels in it!
(((Jill)))) I was born and raised in the south and can completely relate to your stories of insubstantial fluff! Still, it was so much fun to make snowcream! I have fond memories of scooping snow out of my Dad's little trailer so I could make "clean" snowcream. Such fun!
When I married and made the move to Yankee country, I was pleasantly surprised to see what a real snow fall looked like! I'm still in awe at the first few snowfalls of the year and then terribly annoyed by them for the rest of the winter months and I've been here since 1994.
I love snow! I love to watch it fall! I don't love to drive in it though.
Ahhh...snow ice cream! Tasty and germy all at once!
Two of my four have NEVER seen snow, the other two only once when they were both preschoolers. It doesn't snow in the part of NZ we live in :)
BTW Auditions are a bust so I did a new post and we will try again at the end of the month.
I think I lost most of my readers LOL
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