© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

There's Snow ... And There's Snow

When I was a kid, I only saw snow three times in 21 years of life.

The first was when I was about five, and my mother made something she called “snow ice cream,” which just meant that she used the snow for the ice and almost certainly not for the cream. It was tasty, and I had the pleasant illusion that I was eating snow. This was in central Texas.

Then there was nary a flake for about ten years, and suddenly one high-school winter we had another snow. We went outside and threw snowballs at one another for about ten minutes before the white ice turned to green grass.

It snowed one more time, when I was 21, but I have no memory of what we did after that snow. By then, after three snows in 20 years, we were getting bored with snow.

Ah, but there was other snow back in central Texas, too: that was the snow on those early TV sets. It resulted from poor reception. You would lose the picture and this white grainy stuff would show up, sort of vibrating like molecules on the 17-inch screen. “Snow!” we’d yell in great consternation! “Oh, no! Snow!”

Now I live in the north and see snow all winter long. It’s pretty, as long as it confines itself to the holiday season. It never does. But at least it doesn’t ruin my TV reception any more.

I just wish I could have some more of that snow ice cream. I’ve asked my wife how to make it, and she just looks at me as though I were a TV screen that’s just lost its picture.

This is Tom McBride, and that’s my rather snowy perspective.

Related Stories