This past weekend’s widespread storms, which dumped tons of snow and ice on states from New Mexico to New England, proved deadly for some and paralyzing for thousands of communities, including every Southern state save Florida. Salvation South magazine editor Chuck Reece has a few words about the difference between experiencing the white stuff as an adult and as a child.
TRANSCRIPT:
This week, I have a wish for all my fellow Southerners: I hope you are somewhere that is warm and dry and has a pantry full of food to eat.
As I write this, at least 21 people have died in a monstrous winter storm, in which nearly half of the lower 48 got at least a foot of snow. The Southern states got less snow, but plenty of sleet, freezing rain and deep coatings of ice on trees and utility lines. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses are without electricity, and most of them in the South.
At no time in my life, which is fairly long at this point, can I remember snow on the ground in every Southern state at the same time.
Except Florida, of course.
As an adult, snow is something to prepare for. But when I was a kid, snow was something I prayed for. On the south side of our house was a large garden where my father grew vegetables for us every summer. It was about 15 feet lower than the house, and if there was the barest chance for some snow, I dreamed of getting at least enough to let me sled down the hill from the house and into that big, bare garden.
Problem was, I had no sled. Sleds — with their red steel runners and wooden slats and steering handles — were expensive. And it didn’t make a lick of economic sense to buy one if you could only use it every two or three years.
But eventually, I cajoled my elders into buying me a cheaper alternative — a concave steel disc with two handles. These contraptions, I believe, are called saucer sleds. The one my dad bought at the local hardware store had a name painted inside it: Snow Skoot. And that’s what I called it.
I could never forget the two or three times I got to use it before I outgrew it. I put it at the top of that hill, sit cross-legged inside it, and push off. I’d spin wildly until I hit the garden border and then fly into the stubble of dead corn stalks. It never took long for the remains of a corn plant to upset my Snow Skoot and send me tumbling. I’d drag that thing back to the top of the hill again and again until it got dark.
Something I love about living this life is how the things that stress us out as adults sometimes hold memories of how the very same things brought us joy as children. I hope this year’s monstrous storm brought you and your family no harm. And that maybe, if you were lucky, it rekindled a little joy from a long time ago.
Come visit us at SalvationSouth.com for Southern stories and poems and memoirs of all kinds.
Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Fridays at 7:45 a.m. during Morning Edition and 4:44 p.m. during All Things Considered on GPB Radio. Salvation South Deluxe is a series of longer Salvation South episodes which tell deeper stories of the Southern experience through the unique voices that live it. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and wherever you get your podcasts.
