I enjoyed the two and a half snow days from this past week. I might have entered the teaching profession because of my love of two things: 1. Snow days 2. Thanksgiving school lunches. (No, I entered because I get a kick out of kids. They do say the darnedest things.)
I liken the first summer I was in Georgia to how most folks around here react to snow. They don't get it.
1982
It was 90 degrees for about the 100th day in a row that first summer we were in Georgia. "Mama, I can't stand it. The heat is everywhere. You can't get away from it. It is oppressive," I wailed this on a regular basis to my mother via the phone. We were in a second floor apartment. I was pregnant with Mike and Molly was a busy 2 year old.
You see, I didn't get it. I didn't know that swimming could be comfortable. I didn't understand that sitting under a ceiling fan and drinking iced tea while reading a book, knitting, or watching the children play was a great way to pass the time. Summer was as foreign to me then as the snow is to my friends.
"Mama, it is as hot as hell outside and it's 8:00 a.m."
"Mama, it is 11:00 at night and it is as hot as it was at noon."
"You will not believe it. We get up and it is like an oven outside."
The heat was my enemy….until it became my friend.
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Swimming--
I never knew that swimming could be….comfortable. I remember going to the YMCA lessons at Riverside pool in Marshalltown, Iowa. They always posted the temperature of the water (sadists!).
It was warm if it was above 70 degrees….that's right, folks, the water temperature was 70!
Bill, Molly and I were invited to Lake Sinclair for an outing…picnic, boating, beach….and the water was….like a bathtub. It was wonderful. That's when summer became, well, enjoyable. It was a time to be outside, cool off, relax, go to the park, run through a sprinkler, go to a pool, go to the lake, go to the beach, go to the mountains, go tubing….I got it. Summer was different in Georgia. It was hot. Air conditioning was wonderful.
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SNOW is different in Iowa. They all have heavy coats, boots, mittens, gloves, chapstick (by the gross), chains for their tires, jumper cables, snowmobiles……and snow plows. They have lots of snow plows.
I can't do snow as well as I used to do snow.
I don't have a down jacket. I don't have heavy snow boots. Gone are the days when I had noon duty from November until March because my principal didn't want the other older teachers to have duty…."You won't break your hip if you fall," he told me that autumn. "If one of the others go down, they'll be out for weeks. You're 28 and tough." I swear I took those hundred kids out if it was above zero. They had to get their wiggles gone for an afternoon of work. We sometimes stood like cattle with our backs to the wind….we got our fresh air and had a good experience. That was in another life, in another time, in another state.
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2014
I am a Georgia girl….I'll layer up and stick near the fire. And watch the snow fall gently in the woods.
