| When
I was a little girl growing up on Pensacola Street, my favorite day was any day
they called-off school. And when you lived in Texas, any snow day was such a day.
My parents owned the only radio station in town, so when snow was forecast, our
phones began ringing like crazy. Our popularity skyrocketed as my sister's and
my friends called to get even a hint of the latest weather update. But we didn't
talk long.
We'd do anything to make sure the school superintendent's
call to our father came through. Once it did, we broadcast our own signal long
before the wee morning hours when Dad opened the radio station and began announcing,
"Schools are closed today due to snow."
I can remember going to bed the
night before praying for the forecast to come true and making my deal with God...
"if He'd only let it snow." And sometimes, He did.
Texas
kids don't have much snow-wisdom, but that never kept us from having the time
of our life as we slid from one yard to another. It was rather picture perfect.
Somewhere under all those layers of clothes and socks you'd find happy, red faces
thirsty for their next cup of hot chocolate. We'd line up in front of the space
heaters getting just dry enough to make the next leg of our journey through the
neighborhood.
My father was of the creative sort, and we counted on
him to come up with something rare and entertaining
for all us kids. He'd go into the garage and come up with contraptions which he'd
then hook onto the back of his Corvair. Off he'd go ... driving ever so slowly
down one street and up another as kids piled on top his homemade version of a
snowmobile.
Ever so often, I think my mother would come outside and
yell, "Don't get too cold!" There I'd stand with socks so wet you could wring
them out, all the time saying "We're not!" When I did make it inside, she'd have
a big pan of warm water waiting where we'd soak our feet. Guess we never fooled
her.
We'd gather up our Brownie Kodak cameras and take pictures of most
anything in the snow. Our pets got to come in from the yard, and some of us collected
loose snow for homemade ice cream. For sure, dinner included a few servings of
watered-down chili, and sleepovers were a certainty.
We knew it wouldn't
be long before life would resume to normal. Snow in our part of Texas lasted a
couple of days at the most.
Be it ever so short, though, the crush of white snow seemed to cover every flawed
friendship, any injustice and all wounds or injuries. Snow made everything in
life feel wonderful. |
