Want snow with your winter?
The Mister and I took a brief drive out into the country Sunday to see what rural Marion County looked like in the snow. It hadn't changed much from the last time it was covered in snow. But our area sure looked different from the news shots of eastern Colorado and western Kansas.
Having spent all my growing-up years in the cold, frozen reaches of northern Illinois and northern Iowa, big drifts and vast expanses of white do carry a bit of nostalgia. Not that I long for those good old days, but back then I didn't know anything else and winter just meant snow. We always got a lot and we always dealt with it. It was simply part of life from November to April. I don't remember getting out of school for very many "snow days." I suppose they were accustomed to dealing with it and had the equipment to move it.
I discovered this more temperate climate after I graduated from high school and went off to the "Mount Hodie-Oh-Doe School for Girls" in Missouri. I fell in love with an entirely different part of the country and I never went back north except in the summer. I don't do snow sports and I don't want to ever live where the biggest annual event involves something that is frozen. Those other places can keep their snow queens and ice sculpture contests. Give me the Peabody Fourth of July parade in 103-degree heat any day.
The little dusting of snow we had over the weekend was just right in my book. Pretty enough to alter the landscape and give us a feeling of something special, but not so much that nothing moves for days on end. As the state tourism people used to say, "Ahhh, Kansas!"
— SUSAN MARSHALL
