Monday, December 05, 2005

Snow?

I enjoy where I live. In the middle of North Carolina, I have mountains and an ocean within driving distance. I've made day-trips to both places. I enjoy telling family in February that it's in the 60s here. I like all the flowers - some, if you plant them, will ride out the entire winter season.

But today it is raining, stay-in-your-bed rain, read-a-book rain. In the mountains it's snowing.

I grew up in Michigan. It snows in Michigan. And I, and turn away if you cannot bear it, love the snow. Especially the first snow of the year. But snow in general is pretty fantastic in my book. Yes, it's cold. Yes, it can be dangerous. All the more reason to curl up with a good book. Children make it difficult, sometimes, to enjoy the snow. But if you get a good snow, then children provide a good excuse to build snowfolk or to go tobogganing or sledding. Children love the snow. And after you come inside from a good romp in the snow there is, and this is mandatory, hot cocoa for drinking.

And so today, all day, I've been rather depressed. I want the snow. I want the magic that shuts down the world for a day or two.

. . . . .

Toboggan is a superlative word, apparently. So superlative that in North Carolina we use the word to refer to a stocking cap instead of a long wooden sled. The etymology behind this usage is beyond me, but even so, it is so.

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

LOL, i came across ur blog, and sow this post i am also from NC, but born and raised here, and yes a toboggan is a hat...lol. i remember the first time i heard it refferd to as a sled...i was confused.

Jamie Dawn said...

Snow??? No, thank you.
I do like building snowmen and dressing them up.
I like the look of a fresh snow; it is breathtaking.
Other than that, snow pretty much sucks.

Unknown said...

I'm sorry you hate the snow, Jamie. I know a lot of people who do, and that's fine. To me it's probably frozen nostalgia more than anything.

Jennifer, thanks for stopping by. Isn't it funny how similar and different our language is? I remember when I first moved to North Carolina how I had trouble understanding people. Now the cadences are so much a part of me that I have trouble listening to Michiganders.

Jennifer said...

lol.

Anonymous said...

Scott,

I love the snow too. We had our first of the season Wednesday - a "light" snow that piled over 10" of whispy granules in my neck of the woods. No tobogganing here, but there was hot chocolate after shoveling driveways.