Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

The East Coast is buried in snow. That makes the 9 plus inches that fell on Dallas look like a scoop of ice cream compared to a gallon. But here it is big news.

I endured 25 winters “Up North”. Remembering, before each trip to the grocery store, bundling up small children in snowsuits, scarves, mittens, and boots, I was not happy to see today’s big snowfall. Other old ladies here at Montclair were thrilled. Several said, “I’ve never seen snow like this!”

Today’s snow was the deepest on record! Previously the most snow ever to fall on Dallas in one day was 7.3 inches back in 1965. That year my family was living in Birmingham, Michigan. We were under snow from November to April, with several snowfalls of more than 12 inches.

Wallace was in Grand Rapids when one of those blizzards hit. I told the kids, “Daddy won’t be home tonight. We eat hot dogs for supper.”

Wally walked into the house at 7 p.m., stomping the snow off his boots and complaining. He had no trouble driving, following snowplows on the interstate all the way across the State of Michigan. The trouble came when he stopped in front of our house. The plow cleared the snow off our street by shoveling it to the side, making a four-foot high barrier to our driveway. While I cooked his supper – he didn’t get a gourmet meal that night – Wally spent a cold, dreary hour out in the dark clearing the driveway so that he could get his car off the street.

That winter David was a baby. I bought him a baby snowsuit at Sears. First time I put him into it, the zipper broke. I took the snowsuit back to Sears. At Saks Fifth Avenue in Birmingham, I found toddler snowsuits on sale. The smallest was size 2. David’s little hands did not reach the cuffs. His legs stopped at the knees inside the quilted pants. But I bundled that baby into that big snowsuit and carried him in it all winter, saying, “He’ll grow into it in the next two years.”

The following May, Wallace was transferred to Dallas. During the four years we lived in Texas, we saw no snow. Never once was it cold enough for me to put David into that snowsuit. I mailed it to his cousins in Salt Lake City.

I admit I agree with other Texans: today’s snow is pretty. We look out on the courtyard, where the snow on the branches of the tall evergreen are as beautiful as a Japanese print. Through the front window we laugh at the snowman built by our night manager. Not a snow “man” but a snow teddy bear, with snowballs for ears, funny dead branches for arms, and broccoli eyes.

There are advantages to living in this “old folks home”. Being retired, we don’t have to drive to work on slush and ice. Jackie, our driver, did not come to work today. She won’t drive on icy streets either. We can wait. Mickey will take me to dialysis tomorrow. Jackie will take the old ladies to the beauty shop and Wal-Mart next week.