[This is prompt 15 of the series, Book of Me, Written by You..and yes, I am way behind]
I’ve lived in the same community all my life. It’s in the San Francisco Bay Area where too cold in the Winter is 30 (at night) and too hot in the Summer is 90. We aren’t called weather wimps for nothing. We do get frost, but for it to snow here, hell would have to freeze over.
So, the first time I saw real snow was when I was 6 or 7 years old. We took a trip “to the snow”. In all honesty, I don’t even know where we went. We just went “to the snow”. LOL It was probably somewhere in the Sierras. We went with another family who we were good friends with.
This photo was taken from that trip. That’s me and my Dad with my brother and the son from the other family in the background.
What I remember is it was fun, but very cold, and that we were ill prepared for it. I remember we put plastic bags around our feet inside our shoes and our feet still got drenched. Heck, we didn’t even own the right jackets for snow.
We had snow ball fights, slid around on inner tubes, and made snow men. The day came to an end and then we went home. I remember being more than ready for the warmth inside the car.
It did snow in my hometown once in the 50 years I have lived here. It was 1974-1975. We woke up to snow. It was the biggest thrill for us kids. We played in it as we waited for the bus to come. We played in it at school before the bell rang. Sadly, the school was not as impressed with the sight. They made us go to class and when we returned at 10am recess, the snow had melted. Thanks Principal Rice.
The only other times I’ve experienced snow was camping in the mountains. Every year after that we went camping at the end of August. Usually we went up to the Mt. Lassen area. And, every year it snowed on us at least one day. My strangest experience at Lassen was the year we hiked to Bumpass Hell. At the top, are the sulfur pots, hot and bubbling. But, half way up the mountain there was snow, which we gladly started a snow ball fight. It seemed incongruent. Because of these camping trips, snow wasn’t entirely foreign to me.
This is me in 1994 when I went up to Yosemite Valley for a couple days at the beginning of Spring. It was beautiful with it’s blanket of snow–but cold. I can remember getting out of the car and the icy vapor emanating from the ground.
Because we went to Yosemite in the off season, there were more chances to see wildlife. I got this photo of a coyote foraging in the valley.
And this view of Half Dome…notice the little dusting of snow on the ledges.
I think I would be thrilled if it snowed here again. But, for me, snow is too cold (notice how I keep saying that? LOL) It’s neat to visit for short periods but I’ll take my SF Bay Area Winter any day.