Snow Day
Bright white against a blue sky gives cheer to the gray mid-winter scenery. The clouds look like drifts. The trees are outlined in snow and slick hills glisten in the sun.
When it snows the Blue Ridge Parkway closes. Its federal land and they literally lock it down. From my house I can only drive south as far as Rocky Knob Campground, which is where I was when I discovered a dad and his two daughters sledding.
It made me happy to see them, but I also felt nostalgic, remembering when I was a girl sledding down the Hull Village Cemetery hill with my brothers and sisters. We had radio flyer sleds with metal blades that we could steer. I called my sled Betsy because that’s what my mother named all our old second hand cars. She would talk to them on cold mornings, beg them to start.
When my sons were boys they would stay out sledding for hours in their green rubber boots from the thrift shop that never seemed to fit and with their plastic sleds that were hard to steer. A snow day always makes me think of reading to the kids when I worked in day care. I especially remember reading Ezra Jack Keats “A Snowy Day” with a boy name Peter in a bright red snowsuit on the cover.
Post note: LOOK.
Comments
Totally gorgeous photo!! But is it bad that I think that the photo of the guy pulling his daughter on the sled looks kind of weird..almost like he's pulling a dead body? I think it's the angle of the rope..it looks like it's around her neck or something...ok, bad me! Bad thoughts!! Sorry.
Posted by: tea | February 4, 2009 1:11 AM
I feel as you do when I see snowy days. I wish I were a kid again, carefree and not a worry, instead of shoveling and trying to get to work on time. xo
Posted by: Sherry | February 4, 2009 7:35 AM
Those are wonderful pictures, Colleen. They make me feel wistful, remembering when I used to sled with my children on the hill beside our house (before they planted Christmas trees there). It's nice to know, in these days of television, ipods, and video games, that kids still go sledding. May it always be so. :-)
Posted by: Beth | February 4, 2009 8:18 AM
Now that you mention it, Tea. Once I looked at it like that I could see it. I changed the picture (#3) to one more obvious and colorful. It turned out that I had met the dad before and he (and they) kindly posed for me.
Posted by: colleen | February 4, 2009 9:15 AM
Well that is just great.
I can't be here and talk about this Colleen. I am too green with envy. And sad. Very sad.
Posted by: Deana | February 4, 2009 9:49 AM
Deana, it's strange that your 20 minutes away and you didn't get ANY SNOW. What was fun yesterday is cold with biting wind today. Or at least it sounds that way. The woodstove went out over night and I'm freezing.
Posted by: colleen | February 4, 2009 10:07 AM
We received a little snow. I was so happy. We need a lot more, though. Great shots.
Posted by: CountryDew | February 4, 2009 5:57 PM
I haven't thought of the book "The Snowy Day" in years. I adore that cover photo. I adore the entire book. Although my son's now seven, I think I'm going to order the book just so we can share it, hopefully on a snowy day.
Posted by: dena | February 4, 2009 8:49 PM
It came out I think in 1969 and won a Caldecott Book Award.
Posted by: colleen | February 4, 2009 9:02 PM
I love your snow day photos and, even though our snow day lasts about 5 months, I can appreciate the clean and the fun. But must admit to some longing for a little green.
Posted by: Col | February 5, 2009 10:39 AM