Wednesday, January 22, 2014

When Snow Comes to the South


Having just spent eight years in the North, where snow is part of the everyday from December through sometimes even April, our family has long-since stopped thinking of wintry weather as exciting or as some kind of a treat.  It became commonplace for us to put the car in 4-wheel drive on an icy commute to school, to leave faucets dripping at night so pipes wouldn't freeze, and to not bat an eye at forecasts of half a foot of snow. Tim became quite a master at the hand flick you use to sprinkle salt on a frozen sidewalk.

But  then we moved to Eastern North Carolina.

We don't see much of the white stuff down here.  Rocky Mount has on average 50 more days of sun each year than Cincinnati, and what is commonplace in this neck of the woods is grilling-out and taking long walks and making day-trips to the beach.  So when 1-2" of snow was predicted Tim and I were startled to witness store shelves empty of the their milk and bread, and closings and delays come flooding in.  The Rocky Mount Telegram tweeted, "The Snow is Coming! The Snow Is Coming!"

The idea of snow is certainly a much bigger deal in Rocky Mount than what we're used to.  And I must admit that even though I've seen my share of big snows in recent years - even a few blizzards - I, too found myself getting a little tingly over that inch or two that fell overnight.  Realizing this is not something that happens all the time, I ran to the window to watch flakes fall from the sky and dragged drowsy children out of bed so they could watch, too.  We were excited enough in the morning to call a good, old-fashioned 2-hour delay from starting homeschool so the kids could run and play and throw snowballs at each other...as well as the poor dog, who was a good sport. 

 Perhaps it just takes stepping out of the familiar 
to appreciate the familiar. 

 And perhaps one of God's richest gifts is to let us pick-up and start over and see everything new once again. 


"A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder." 
-Susan Orlean
Posted by at 11:26 AM

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2014 at 2:48 PM

    Great Blog!! Educate the kids in the art of snowball battles - that's the way! Have you taught them how to make snow cream?
    Back home, the schools have been open only 3 days since the first of the year!
    Love and miss ya kids. Uncle Doak

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  2. kathy and mikeJanuary 23, 2014 at 10:39 AM

    I am sure that the kids had a great time chasing each other and getting to play in the snow. Did they get to make any snow angels? Mike had to plow our street on Tues. morning. We got 4 inches. Fun snow days for us is OVER!!!
    Love to everyone......

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 23, 2014 at 10:44 AM

    I agree with you on how we lose sight of the familiar things over time. We have said many times that the day we gave you guys a tour of RM was the first time we had been able to 'see' our hometown in quite a while. We were viewing everything that day from a new perspective, yours!

    Glad you could get a bit of enjoyment out of the snow. The best thing about NC snow is that it's beautiful, but gone quickly! And it is so hard to get all the elements to align just right for snow here (cold temps and moisture at the same time), that it doesn't come often either. So that's what all the hoopla is about. Might be the last snow we see this year or for the next 3 years!

    BTW, we did make the snow cream and it was so good! 1 gallon of snow, 1 cup of sugar, 1 Tbs. vanilla extract and add milk until it comes together like ice cream. YUM!!!

    HH

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