Dear HCN,
The other day I touched
snow for the first time since 1995, when my wife and I fled the
snow, ice and cold of Colorado after 50 years of residency. We
moved to Southern California, where we could view the cursed stuff
only on mountains far in the distance.
A pickup
truck just down from the mountains carried into Escondido a
sizeable sampling of wet spring snow and was parked at the curb the
other day. A friend and I had enjoyed a small art gallery and
delicious quiche at a French pastry, when we spotted the truck
sitting there.
Like a pair of kids, we each
grabbed up a handful of the stuff and she threatened to stuff it
inside my lightweight shirt. I made a similar gesture toward her,
discovering that the hostility I had carried against snow was
evaporating almost as fast as the little snowball in my
hand.
That experience, and Lou Bendrick’s
delightful piece, “I am an Inuit warrior,” in the Feb. 12 issue of
High Country News, have helped me realize that I
must face my dislike of winter’s cold with humor that may elevate
my body’s temperature, that chuckles about polar blasts may enable
me to once again venture into the high country of Colorado for
short periods of time.
Thank you, Lou Bendrick.
Warm regards.
Bob
Child
Vista, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Chuckling about polar blasts.
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