Snow?

It wasn't quite as cool as the day before this morning, and certainly not as cool as it was on Tuesday morning, when I was standing in the shadow of the facade of the Walton County Courthouse, feeling the wind blow through me without much provision for shelter from columns or other such architectural provision for my comfort. No, instead, it felt more like a normal January Thursday in Georgia and the strips of baby blue were showing through thin clouds above.

However, now it is different. Since lunch, the clouds have taken over and we are anticipating some type of precipitation, frozen or otherwise. There is little wind and the whole town looks as if it were holding its breath, waiting.

At these times, some get rather cynical and figure nothing of great importance will occur. And I will admit that it seems as if the best, thickest snows occur without much fanfare or anticipation by the meteorologists. We just awaken one morning and there is a thick layer of snow on the ground and the branches of the trees and roofs of the houses in the neighborhood.

At these times, you might get lucky and glimpse a bright red cardinal flitting among the bushes or pecking at seeds on the ground. But the best part of these mornings is the opportunity to walk outside and feel the silence around you. The snow muffles the world around us and the quiet is palpable.

Walking among the flakes, the intrusion of a car or truck is ugly and rude, but lasts only a brief moment. Most of the streets are bereft of vehicles and into this quiet, safe world, I used to let Molly run loose, for she seemed to really enjoy the snow.

When I was a sophomore in college, Don and Bill and I were driving back to Lexington when we encountered a heavy snowfall as we crossed the mountains near Fancy Gap, Virginia on I-77 from Charlotte to Wytheville, Virginia. We turned on the radio and learned that I-81 from Wytheville to Roanoke was closed due to the snow. We ended up driving across the mountains on little state highways from Fancy Gap to Roanoke, only picking up I-81 near Roanoke and following the normally forty five minute route back to Lexington, which now took about two hours.

As we drove slowly north on I-81, you could see the headlights of cars spinning in the darkness in front of you. Everywhere we went were cars whiched had slipped off the interstate onto the side of the highway. When we finally made it to the Lexington/Buena Vista exit, and drove on the state highway toward W&L, we were still encountering cars stranded on the side of the road.

It was very late when we finally made it to our digs in Lexington and the snow continued to pile up around town. I put my black stetson cowboy hat and my peacoat on and walked around town in the snow. The streetlights were illuminating the half dollar size flakes as they fell from the sky.

The next day would be classes and the weeks leading up to the Fall exam period. Meanwhile, the snow would continue to come down and the ice and snow and slush would remain on the ground in Rockbridge County until the third week in March. In early March, before the end of the Winter semester, I was able to drive up to Harrisonburg and Massanutten and take the one final skiing lesson I needed to complete my hours for skiing p.e.

That was a snowfall.