Monday, January 10, 2011

Snow Like the Old Days

It's snowing- I mean really snowing- here in Tennessee this morning! My girls can't remember seeing this much snow. They've often heard grand tales of blizzard-like conditions of my youth in the 70s and 80s. I even remember being "snowed in" in Knoxville when they were babies, requiring my dear Stepfather Bill to come and rescue us and make a Pamper run to the grocery store. He was always ready with chains on the tires and a smile on his face.

There was one particularly spectacular snow in January, 1980, that resulted in many, many hours of frosty fun for me and my cousin, Angie Partin. I was 10 at the time, and Angie a mere 8 years old. We lived in the woods, basically, in a very rural hideaway valley lodged between 3 mountains. A burbling creek was one of our favorite toys in the Summertime, and that Wintery day, we managed to still play in the creek, only a little more creatively. Angie and I spent hours and hours rolling the biggest snowball on the planet. We rolled it all around our big yard and fields, until it was so big we couldn't roll it alone.

Then we enlisted the help of my brother, Jimmy. He was 16 and of course had nothing he would rather be doing than helping his little sister roll a giant snowball. That snowball was 5 feet tall at least!

So, with Jimmy's help, we rolled that big snowball into the creek. I don't remember why we had that bright idea, but we did. We didn't know it at the time, but that simple act resulted in many days of entertainment! Long after the other snow had melted away, our snowball stayed stubbornly in that creek, melting at a sinfully slow speed. We had so much fun checking on it every day, monitoring it's progress.

Sadly, as was inevitable, our prize snowball eventually melted. But in later years, we had many laughs and giggles recalling the determination and effort with which we pushed that snowball around the fields! Oh, it was glorious fun!

As with all things, now Angie and Jimmy are both gone. That winter of 1980 was Jimmy's last, as he was taken in a car crash on March 5 of that same year. Only this past year Angie, too, passed away after a long battle with Cancer. The memory is mine alone now.

2 comments:

  1. What a wonderful post, Donna. I loved reading about your memories with your brother and cousin -- how sad that they are no longer alive to share those memories with you. Alas, you can always revisit them in your daydreams :) Beautiful photos -- enjoy the snow!

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  2. Wonderful post...really enoyed :) And snow here completely gone, at least we had 3 weeks of it!!!

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