Sorry this post is a little late, but I totally spaced! I had this post planned out even and still forgot. I blame the craziness of the holidays. Yes...that's my story and I'm stickin to it.
So, instead of posting about the upcoming holiday, I thought to post about winter memories instead.
I grew up in Nebraska where it was a guarantee to have a blizzard or five every winter. Then I moved to Georgia when I was 15. It's laughable how people react to snow down here!
My first day at my new school ended up being cancelled because of the CHANCE that the rain MIGHT freeze. I laughed the entire day! And guess what? It didn't rain at all until 7 pm. Of course I know that Georgians aren't used to the idea of a layer of ice on the rods - under 5 feet of snow. But still. I found it highly amusing.
But I think my greatest winter memory would have to be the time me and my neighbors built a 7 foot tall snow woman (anatomically correct of course).
Across the street from us lived twin boys and I'm sad to report I don't remember their names any more! With a fresh layer of snow on the ground we decided to build a snowman. It was the perfect type of snow too - wet and sticky!
So we made the base but discovered all three of us made a huge snowball each. Instead of deciding which one to use, we put them together and packed in more snow to make one gigantic base. The middle came next, and took some manuervering to get it ontop of the base.
Of course, the really complicated part was putting the head ontop. We dug out foot holes in the back of the snowman and climbed up the top. Then through a sheer miracle and show of strength, we managed to get the head ontop.
Of course came the face, made with large rocks for eyes and a smile and a carrot nose. But we were lost how to dress the thing.
The boys decided to make it a woman and added an *ahem* endowed chest to her. But it was a good thing they did as a large blue tarp made an easy dress!!
I wish I still had a picture of it but sadly I don't. A small article showed up in the town's newspaper about it too! Maybe I should try to look that up but I don't know if the small town would have archives online!
What about you? Do you have any special winter memories of snowmen (or women) or an epic snowball fight?
LOL--cancelled because of the chance of freezing rain? I'm from Minnesota...so I know about snow for sure.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how old I was, but we got a wicked snow storm. School was cancelled and we were outside (me and my friends). We built these wicked-awesome forts and had snowball fights until I couldn't even move I was so tired from laughing and having so much fun.
No snowmen, though. Or snow women. LOL. Guess we were more into the forts and fighting. LOL
Ah, these poor Southerners. I have friends and relatives in Virginia who came from Boston and they have good laughs when it snows. Native Virginians seem to run amok at snow flurries, despite being within a hair's breath of D.C. and Baltimore (apparently the Mason-Dixon line affects the weather, too).
ReplyDeleteMy fondest memories of winter come from the Blizzard of '78. Tons of snow that required the National Guard to come out to remove it. There was obviously no school because the snow piles were higher than the kids' heads.
But, that made for huge snow forts. We had enough snow to make snow tunnels that connected to other fox holes and even went out onto the sidewalk and down to the driveways. We'd play one side of the street against another and connect forts in other yards for one massive snow ball war.
There was this one girl on the other side of the street who had a deadly accurate arm and bedeviled my side of the street for most of the morning. Then, she made her mistake. She loosened her zipper and took off her hood so she could be more limber in throwing snowballs. I made a huge snowball and lofted it in a high arc, like a pop fly. Dropped it right between her head and the hood. Because her jacket was not fully zippered, the snow when right down her back. She had to run inside and get out of the jacket, coat underneath and her thermals to get the snow out.
Wish I'd had a digital camera back then. It was priceless.
I also remember it because a friend of the family had come up from Bermuda (!). She lasted all of 10 minutes before she fled inside, her feet already showing signs of frostbite. As far as I know, even to this day, she will not venture toward the United State outside of the summer months.
Being a native Northern Californian, to get snow, we had to go to Tahoe, and we would, although we weren't a skiing family, until I had my own kids. I remember sliding down on saucers and hitting trees because I liked to go fast! My father was scared to death to put me on one.
ReplyDeleteWe once had snow in Palo Alto and got to build a snowman, and my folks have that picture - me kissing the snowman, in my bouffant curlers! School was cancelled. And, as I recall, San Francisco was completely shut down because no one could maneuver the hills.
But I wasn't snowed in until December of 08 when we went up to my daughter's graduation from college, and we got snowed in and it was cancelled. With nothing left to do, I started writing. I'm not sure if I would have begun this trek if that snowin hadn't occurred - sort of a Mary Shelley moment in time.
My daughter and grandsons live in Dalton GA - and they get all excited to have a little snow. Sheesh - I wish I could send them some of the snow around here!
ReplyDeleteOne time my buddy Bart and I were blazing the truck trails, drinking beer and chasing elk on state land, when we came across a realistic snowman, painstakenly carved - out in the middle of nowhere!
He was leaning up against an old oak tree, and the detail was amazing! He had a tuk, suspenders, and a beard! He was positioned holding his manhood like he was taking a whiz with one hand, and held a real beer bottle in the other. There was even yellow snow under him!
We left to get a camera, but never was able to find it again. We called him our fantasy woodsman - and to this day, our friends still say it was a drunken illusion on our parts (but I SWEAR it was real!)
Anastasia, we don't get much snow here in the Fresno area of California. In fact, none at all. We can take a short drive up into the mountains if we want to play in the snow or ski or whatever. About every 8-10 years we will actually have an hour of snow. We always rush out into the street and enjoy it. We're just about due for another one...hopefully. At the moment all we're getting is rain. It's been raining for about a week now, and doesn't look to be stopping anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting...and for spending so much of your time working on the schedule. I know we all really appreciate it.
Your pal, Jimmy