Saturday, December 21, 2013

HERE COMES WINTER!

Today marks the beginning of winter up here in the Northern Hemisphere, or as the scientists call it the Winter Solstice.  Living in the Arizona desert, actually properly known as the Great Sonoran Desert, we welcome winter as a time of moderate temperatures, a relief from the freaking days of 100+ temperatures.

But I remember winter.


That picture was taken some time in the mid-1940's in my home town of Stanley, North Dakota.  That's me on the left, my older brother, Wayne, on the right with his hand on the shovel. Apparently he had been detailed to clear the sidewalk and steps in front of our home.  I gather I was supervising and generally getting in the way.


This picture was taken just after the big blizzard of 1966 in Bismarck, North Dakota.  My Chevrolet Impala with my personalized ham radio license plate had been buried by snow drifting off the roof of the home I lived in then.  I had been shoveling it out but stopped to take this picture.


This one was taken in 1975 showing the frosted trees in front of the home I grew up in.  (Note the television antenna on the roof.)

So I can sympathize with you folks in other parts of the country that are currently (and many for the past several weeks) fighting their way through snow and ice and freezing rain.

But as we say in Arizona - "You don't have to shovel sunshine!"

15 comments:

  1. I love the snow! Unless I have to go someplace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No snow to speak of yet this year. I have the salt bucket ready and a new shovel.. Who knows. I may not have to use them (grin).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your photo tour along memory lane remind me of my midwestern youth. The year before we moved to California we had a winter weekend where we had to shovel the drive way 5 times on Saturday and 4 on Sunday, just to keep a path open for the car. We were running out of space to stack the snow. We do not miss a second of that. No, we do not miss a millisecond or nanosecond of it!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Too bad your brother wasn't handed a proper snow shovel in that first picture. It would have made the task a whole lot easier. Great pictures of times long past.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think he would have preferred a snow blower but I don't think they'd been invented yet. My preference is for a flame thrower! (grin)

      Delete
  5. I love shoveling snow. I could sit and watch others do it for hours on end. :)

    S

    ReplyDelete
  6. Must you rub it in? We are having a heat-wave today: 20 degrees in Minneapolis.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Snow is so lovely.........in pictures! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yesterday, the Smoki Museum in Prescott had tradtional Native American story telling for Winter Solstice. My favorite story was an Indian telling his experiences when invited as a speaker on a Pow Wow cruise.

    ReplyDelete
  9. An Indian story to shake the winter blues:

    God created the world and wanted to give the world good things like love but wasn't sure how to do it.

    He went to Bear, but Bear wanted to bury them in the woods.
    He went to Eagle, but Eagle wanted to fly them to the moon.
    Then God looked down and saw Mouse. Mouse said he knew what to do with the good things. So God gave the good things to Mouse and that is how they ended up in each person's heart.

    ReplyDelete