Saturday, January 14, 2012

Snow

It snowed last night in Sprogland, but sadly, these are not the white, fluffy snows of my youth. The wet coast of Canada generally only manages something that looks like a 7Up slurpee. Nothing you could make snowballs or snowmen with. Tobogganing is possible, but very soggy & by noon, any popular hilly spots would be striped with slushy mud.

Whenever I hear of snow in the forecast, I always go to bed hoping that I'll wake up to a silent white wonderland in the morning. Silent not just because the snow muffles city noise so well, but also because Vancouverites are afraid to drive in the white stuff, so there's less traffic. I'd really love to show Sprout some real snow, go tobogganing in our neighbourhood & jump into a snowbank.

I have some great childhood memories in the snow. From my recollection, we'd have snow from Hallowe'en to near Easter in the Kootenays, where I spent my first eleven years. Hallowe'en costumes had to be big enough to fit a snowsuit underneath & treat bags had to be sturdy, because if they sprung a leak, you wouldn't find the fallen candies until spring. I remember playing in all kinds of forts, igloos & other structures out of snow, including one made of giant ice cubes that my friend's parents had made by leaving buckets of water outside. I brought a Krazy Karpet to school most days when I went to a school with hills in the grounds.



Nearly all my great snow memories involve free activities, which is one lovely thing about living in a snowy place. My family didn't ski (downhill)--I guess because it was so pricey--but favoured the activities with no admission charge like tobogganing, skating on lakes & cross-country skiing around the neighbourhood. Here in Vancouver snow is a user-pay option:  go up one of the three ski hills on the North Shore.

I think today's slush will probably be gone by tomorrow, but I'll still go to bed hoping for a big dump of fluffy white flakes down here in the city.

Do you get much snow where you live? Do you have any great childhood memories involving snow?

1 comment:

  1. You need to move out to the 'burbs if you want to wake up to a winter wonderland! When we got out of bed this morning around 8:30am, the snow was falling in huge flakes from the sky, and everything was covered with a 3" blanket of white snow. I know 3" is not as much as in the Kootenays, but it was still pretty fun! We have a snowman in the front yard about as big as Jonah, and one in the back nearly as tall as me!
    I remember building a snow fort inside the snow banks in front of our townhouse when we were living in NV. So at one point, there was a big pile of snow here.

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