It’s Snow Problem…

Posted by Justine | January 24, 2009 | 19 Comments

Am I the only person on this good earth that loves snow? All around me, even in my own house, I’m bombarded with complaints of cold, whines about shoveling, grumbles about snowstorms.

I grew up in the northern-most reaches of Michigan, close to the Canadian border. There were homes with doors on the second story so people could get out in January. I remember making snow tunnels through my entire front yard, not just in snowbanks. I remember sledding off the porch roof straight out into the yard. By February, you couldn’t see the grocery store from the street anymore because the parking lot snow had been piled up 30 feet high. I’m very nostalgic for cold blustery days.

I’m sure that’s part of my problem.

Nostalgia will get you every time.

We moved from that place just before I came to BYU, so I’ve never been back. My memories have grown in importance, unmarred by any pesky realities. I never lived there as an adult, I never had to be responsible for driving to work in 4 feet of new fallen snow. My memories are all about playing and snow days and sleds and snow forts. It’s very pleasant, if you must know.

But because of my lovely snow-filled childhood, I can hardly bear another rainy, dreary, see the dead-grass January! It’s currently raining outside. Raining — in January. There should be no chance of rain. There should be no chance that the snow will melt. It’s January. January means cold and snow and forts. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get my husband to see my point. He just laughs and I suspect he thinks I might be crazy. He won’t move to Northern Michigan because, get this, he says there aren’t any jobs there!

Jobs!? Who cares about the jobs part. People didn’t really leave their neighborhoods for most of the winter anyway, so what’s the point of a job? And since winter really lasts into June or early July (I remember a blizzard while I was twirling a baton in the 4th of July parade), there would only be a month or two of earnest working anyway. Let’s just go there, eat wild bears for survival, and built snow forts.

I want my children to have happy snow memories. I want them to remember the massive fort they built in the backyard that they played in all winter. I want them to create 20 foot tall ice sculptures of princesses and dragons. I want them to jump on their cross country skis and ski around the neighborhood or to the five-and-dime just for fun. I want them to get up in the morning and jump to the radio to find out if it’s a snow day.

I want them to…well…ummm…I guess I want them to have my memories. Is that so wrong?

Category: weekend rants

Comments

19 Responses to “It’s Snow Problem…”

clistyB
January 24th, 2009 @ 1:14 am

definitely seem to be lots of anti snow-bunnies in these parts. I’m from CA so I still have the snow-honeymoon phase going on. And oh my goodness, Utah snow is NOTHING compared to what you grew up in, it must feel like Hawaii to you, no?
Roxie
January 24th, 2009 @ 2:04 am

I myself love snow too. But often find myself in the minority. People look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them I like snow. I moved from Utah to Arizona last year and I’ve lost track of how many people have told me I must be glad to be away from all that snow. I’m not. I miss it! It’s crazy to be wearing a jacket in January just because it’s January and not because it’s actually cold.
rebekah
January 24th, 2009 @ 5:23 am

oh, justine. i’m out in dc and i hate that it doesn’t snow here. imagine spending all winter in the january you’re describing: no snow, dead grass, gloomy weather. it’s bad for morale. i’ve made friends with two north dakotans who understand why winter needs an abundance of snow!
Brenda
January 24th, 2009 @ 9:13 am

This made me laugh…and do you know why? Because we just moved from Seattle to SE Idaho. I hate the snow. And believe it or not, I miss the rain. I miss laying in bed at night listening to the rain pound on the roof. I miss the smell of rain. And I miss seeing rainbows when the sun peeks out after a storm. That was my childhood. I guess we cling on to those memories and it’s time to make some new ones.
Angela
January 24th, 2009 @ 10:04 am

In our 7+ years in Minnesota, we became very hardy souls, and I loved the snow there, too. I’m *not* nostalgic for -35 degrees and bundling my kids from head to toe everyday before shooing them out the door (I always felt so badly for the poor preschool teachers who had to dress and undress all those three year olds every day for “outside time”–you couldn’t pay me enough! Snow pants! Argghh!). One year we were in MN in didn’t get above 32 degrees ONCE from mid-November to mid-March, so none of the snow that fell that winter melted. By March, there were piles and piles of dirty, icky, sad old snow piled everywhere. A good January rain would have helped.

I do love winter, though. I love that it gets dark early. I love holing up in my house with my husband and kids. I love my fireplace. A winter-less existence would be tough for a homebody like me.
FoxyJ
January 24th, 2009 @ 10:30 am

I grew up in southern CA and for years while living in Utah I talked about how much I hated the snow. Like you, I think part of it was just nostalgia for the kind of childhood I had, going to the beach all the time (in my mind, I think we actually didn’t go in the winter). Now that I’ve lived in places with winter for a number of years I’ve learned to let go a little and try and enjoy the winter so I’m not cranky for half the year.
Kristin
January 24th, 2009 @ 10:50 am

Yeah…I am NOT a fun winter mom. I am the Queen of Summer. I grew up in CA during a drought. It was phenomenal. Great temps. Clear blue skies. Relaxing at the pool or beach or park or at Great America…in flip-flops. Therein lies my nostalgia.

I struggle so much with freezing temps and the endless blanket of white in IL. I really am no fun in the cold or snow, and like you, I wish my kids could have MY memories–of mild seasons and endless outdoor activities year round (without 22 layers).

I do my best to give them a healthy dose of what I grew up with in the summer, but I’m not sure how their winter memories will shape up.

Hopefully it won’t be of a grumpy winter mom.

I find it amazing how much we are shaped by our childhood experiences. Even years later, our preferences are so often for whatever we appreciated from our youth.
Justine
January 24th, 2009 @ 11:27 am

Our childhoods really do shape so much of our preferences, don’t you think? I think they shape far more of us than we even realize.

I’m so sad that not everyone on earth is in love with blustery, winter days, but I’ll get over it.

I’d be curious to know if everyone is nostalgic for that childhood experience – even people that had horrible childhoods.
Sue
January 24th, 2009 @ 2:46 pm

I had a memorable (and yes, Mom, enjoyable) childhood in the sun. I still live in California, so my children have had the same!

I did attend school in Utah and enjoyed the snow as a visitor, though I wouldn’t want to live there. My main complaint? I’m scared to death to drive in it! My husband, who grew up in Chicago, is as comfortable as can be with the iciest roads imaginable…And it is definitely a case of familiarity and how/where you grew up.

I grew up swimming in the ocean, for example. To me, it’s like a big (way more fun) swimming pool. To my spouse, it’s a daring enterprise…a challenging skill to be mastered.

Sadly, I still haven’t mastered driving in the snow…even after 4 years in Utah, during which I slid down 4th South at one point spinning in circles…only to end up at the bottom minus a hub cap or two.

Sheesh!
martha
January 24th, 2009 @ 4:48 pm

You are so right about our childhood shaping our preferences. I long for large bodies of water, pine trees, thunderstorms, and even humidity. Summers in the desert just cannot measure up to my childhood memories on the beaches of Minnesota and Michigan.
When I tell my husband that I would love to move back, he says the same thing as yours Justine. I always keep my ears open for a job for him somewhere along the banks of Lake Michigan.
Perhaps a summer home someday…
Michelle L.
January 24th, 2009 @ 5:41 pm

The end of February leaves me longing for sunnier climes but I know a permanent move would leave me missing the four seasons of Utah. My sister lives in San Diego and her children long for our snow.

I grew up in a rural area and spent long happy days exploring fields, abandoned farmhouses and tubing down Little Cottonwood Creek. Because of those memories I constantly tell my kids, “Go out! Explore! Build a fort!” But everything is private property these days– so sad.

Maybe we could travel back in time and bring our children to our childhood? Another idea for heaven.
wendy
January 24th, 2009 @ 9:24 pm

I loved snow when I first moved here for college. I’d always wanted to live in a place where it snowed–it was so magical! I’m not sure when the magic started to fade for me. I think it was fairly recent: the bad back injury from slipping on the ice a few years ago, swirving on slick roads, feet that really are unhappy when they are cold and the inability to find shoes that will keep them warm, a back that can’t handle shoveling . . . little things like that. BUT, I plan to re-embrace it next winter when ds is old enough to get it and really have fun in the snow. We’ll see how I do.

I get nostalgic for the foggy Christmases & New Years of Sacramento, driving in fog so thick the driver had to open the door to see the middle line, Christmas lights gleaming through the dense moisture, missing turnoffs altogether. Good times!
m&m
January 24th, 2009 @ 11:05 pm

I love the snow.

The two days we had those huge storms, I didn’t want to come inside from shoveling. Love it — peaceful, fluffy, fun.

And there is nothing to me like after sunset, hearing my kids still squealing with delight as they play in the snow. I don’t know why I like it in the dark, but it just seems like things are that much more still.
Carina
January 25th, 2009 @ 2:36 am

I love snow, adore it. From the first fat flake to the last lovely layer (sorry, I love snow so much I wax lyrical.)

I even love snow when it is March, or occasionally April. I’m always sad when the snow stops.

Don’t you love the snow glow? When it’s been snowing, or still snowing, the clouds are low, and it’s night? The sky is light and everything is bound up in a warm white embrace. You can curl up with a cup of cocoa and practically read from the ambient light.

Fresh dusting on the trees, a new coat of white, the hush of your neighborhood, deserted streets. Yes, I don’t even mind driving in snow.

I’ve reluctantly grown to appreciate summer over the years–except August; that wretched month must go. After all, if I’m ready for fall when July rolls around, you can see why August is INTERMINABLE. It’s just so hot…blech.

I LOVE SNOW.
dalene
January 25th, 2009 @ 7:44 am

Carina spoke the words right out of my heart. I love snow glow and that calming, quieting snow hush. I don’t even mind the intermittent rain because I know the snow will come again (and it did!).

And I don’t love August, either.
Jennie
January 25th, 2009 @ 9:22 am

I like May and October. The rest of it? Notsomuch.

P.S. I grew up In Michigan and I hate the snow! Except when I can watch it from my window. Come to think of it, I like rain a lot if I only have to watch it from my window too.
cahkaylahlee
January 25th, 2009 @ 10:52 am

I grew up where it was HOT during the summer. The sand in the sandbox was too hot to touch, the grass was dead and pokey, the swimming pool felt like hot bath water, and Mom wanted us to play outside. Yuck.

Snow is way more fun to play in. Besides, you can always put more layers on. When it’s hot, there’s only so much you can take off (I still ran around in my undies on occasion when I was in 3rd grade).

That’s why I now live in what my parents call “Cold Country.”
mormonhermitmom
January 27th, 2009 @ 11:15 am

Snow is fine when the community knows how to deal with it. I grew up in Utah where the towns plowed the major roads, somebody with a 4 wheel drive would plow individual streets for a fee, and business went on as usual. I detest places where more than two inches of snow brings everything to a standstill because everybody is freaked out about it and can’t drive in it. It’s snowing where I am right now and I’m dreading that tomorrow will be a snow day. Snow is great to play in, but now that I have kids, I want them in school darn it.
Tonya
January 27th, 2009 @ 2:34 pm

I must appologize. I’m sure that you have heard my complaints of snow many times. Honestly, I think I was born in the wrong state. Arizona, here I come. 120 degree weather, bring it on. But cold and snow, no thanks. Except, I have to admit, there is some nostalgia to snow forts and snow men (there were times in Utah that the snow went up to my chest. I was 3, but still). If I didn’t have to drive down off a mountain, 30 minutes away for work every day, I think I may be a little more tolerant of winter.