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WINTER 2005
The winters in the West Michigan don't seem as long, as cold, as snowy, as they used to be when I was younger, younger as in the days of sledding, iceskating, and hanging out outside as if the winter weather meant nothing. We used to get season-long piles of snow. You'd be shoveling and shoveling and shoveling, then wake up the next day and start all over again. There'd be snow on the hills and so much so that from the days and days of sledding activity the sled path would be a compacted sheet of ice that you could hardly walk up. The local ponds would freeze over and be good and solid for weeks if not months, attracting a flurry of iceskaters...playing hockey, playing crack-the-whip, losing balance and landing quite hard and painfully on one's tailbone.
In the past years I've noticed the sporacity of the snowfall, of the winter season. There is no seasonal snowfall, it seems; it all comes in one or two lumps spread out across the winter months...which can be a pain in the rear. With the sporadic snowfall and climate changes, one day you have a foot of snow on the ground, next day you need to wear your hip-boots because the sun is out, the air is warm and you have a flashflood rolling down the sidewalk (or quicksand/sloppy bog for a front lawn). The sledding hills turn to mud and muck. The local ponds have signs up all year that caution people to potential for thin ice. I don't see anyone iceskate anymore at John Ball Park.
The loss of a true long winter isn't a horrible thing. You still get the jaunts and instances of chill air that freezes the nose hairs and bites at exposed flesh. You still get the icy pathways, the sidewalks and streets and the pretty sheen of the streetlights upon it. With the snow cover, night time seems more alive and vibrant; trees and the sky are outlined in darkness against the blue-white ground cover (unlike spring, summer and fall when everything blends in the darkness and you can't see anything out your window).
And I still have the memories of the way things were. There is always the opportunity to take a stroll in the chill or drive by the dark iceskating pond at John Ball Park and reminisce. |
