1/18/08 Snow Day

We're supposed to get up to an inch of snow here this weekend. And if you know Knoxville, you'll know that there's already panic in the streets. We can't help it. It's just hardwired for us. Snow is such an anomaly here that it is regarded with utmost awe and caution. It's beautiful but dangerous...much like lightening strikes, or Cher's hair. Snow literally shuts the city down completely. And while I logically know that it is possible to continue function normally in the snow, I don't, because that's the way it always has been.

Case in point:

When I was young, approximately 10 or 12 or so, the family woke up one wintry Sunday morning with full intentions of going to church. One look out of the back windows though, and we realized that we were snowed in. The whole back porch was covered! Inches and inches (well, maybe an inch and a half) of snow! It would take us weeks to dig out! (Luckily, we had heard that such a blizzard might take place, so we too had joined the rest of the town in stocking up months of grocery supplies the day before). My mother, always making the best of a situation, realized that getting to church would be an impossibility with all the roads closed, and instead dressed us in snow suits and gloves and boots and scarves and hats and then another two layers after that so that we could go out and play in it. Oh the snow! Safe from the treacherous driving conditions, we were free to frolic on the porch, throwing snowballs and making tiny three inch snowmen, and sliding around in all the two inch snowdrifts. (Quit snickering. I told you that snow was a big deal for us). Anyway, we played for hours, until we received a call from some fellow church goers, wondering why we didn't show up to Sunday school today. Sunday School? We couldn't possibly make it to Sunday School! The roads were all closed! Didn't they see all the snow?

It wasn't until we walked around to the front of the house that we realized that the ground was too warm, and all the snow from the "snowstorm" had melted upon impact. It only stayed on our back porch because it was raised off of the ground. The rest of the yard, driveway and all the roads were completely clear.