It's been a few years since we had significant snowfall here in Greensboro, Md. That's if you consider five or six inches significant. I'm still in the mindset that it is more of a nuisance than anything else. I didn't run out to buy toilet paper and milk! When I did go out, I saw a few snowmen around, no snowwomen though guess they are indoors making hot cocoa. Probably need to write an e-mail to the towns' diversity committee about that. Hold some training at the elementary school. But then again maybe some were identifying as women, I didn't ask about their pronouns. But I'm wandering off a bit. I was going to mention that we really don't have any hills around here for sledding. Just a few mounds where you could slide maybe ten feet or so, not much more. And when I was a kid that was what snow was for, sledding.
I went ice skating, built igloo's, had snowball fights and made snowmen but it was sledding that I enjoyed the most. I lived on a dead-end dirt road. At the end of that road there were two hills in succession. The big hill was quite steep and quite rocky, beyond that was the smaller hill. That is the hill we normally would sled down as it was manageable under most conditions and gave you a nice long ride as it opened into a clearing. I've ridden sleds, toboggans, washing machine lids, flying saucers, cardboard boxes and the hood of a 53 Studebaker down that hill. Good times and very good memories. Yes, I attempted the big hill a few times and the results were not nearly as enjoyable. Tried skiing on barrel staves one year, not a very smart idea! Jon Claude Killy I'm not! If you remember Jon Claude Killy, you're old! He was winning medals the year I tried skiing down that hill.
I hear a lot about global warming, and I think we are seeing less snowfall than in years past. I also believe it is just all a part of the normal cycle of things in the universe. The time we are aware of is very small compared to the reality of time. It's like our lives. If we live to be a hundred that is considered very old, a long life, four generations perhaps. In the context of time however, not so very long. Not long enough to have a fair sampling of time. What has changed since 1953 the year I was born? Lots of technological changes but not so much as far as human nature goes. Still arguing and getting upset about the same issues as our parents and grandparents. People are still experiencing the same things they were a thousand years ago. What goes around, comes around. Weather is the same way.
I was lucky as a kid. I had my own private hills to sled on and my own little pond to skate on. Both were within easy walking distance of home. I had my brothers and sister to play with and sometimes there were kids in the little house at the far end of the road. What we would call section eight housing today, that place was occupied by various families, some with young kids and some with older ones. None stayed very long, just temporary housing. In the spring the owner, an artist, would come and stay until Labor Day. I knew all the neighbors, there were three of them. I could use their bathrooms and warm up if I didn't want to go home just yet. One neighbor, Aunt Francis, we called her, would even make us hot cocoa. I can hear her yelling to us kids on that hill to this day. C'mon in and get some cocoa before you freeze to death!
These are some of the memories I have of that time, as I look out my window on a world of white. I have no desire to go out into the world, no desire to sleigh down a hill or strap on a pair of skates. You can call it wisdom if you like, but I just known better than to try any of that today. It's still pleasant to think about, to remember and experience in my mind. But I know what the reality is. I'm too old for that stuff and it is too cold! That is what we make memories for. Memories are intended to be enjoyed from the comfort of your easy chair, perhaps with a warm beverage. I don't need any artificial intelligence, head mounted displays, or virtual headsets! All I have to do is remember and I can experience it all anytime I like. And it's all random. Never know what I'll remember next.
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