THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 73 lines
I TURNED IN last week's column - confessions of a snow lover - expecting to get plenty of complaints about it.
Even folks who moved here from places where snow was common kinda hate to see it coming, I think.
Those folks believe - more or less correctly - that Southerners are incapable of dealing with snow maturely.
``Southerners think it's grits dropping out of the sky and tend to move around in it in very unpredictable ways,'' a woman from Boston complained.
She said she stayed indoors during periods of snow because of the lousy snow drivers on our roads.
``They skid all over the streets, they cartwheel down hills, and one out of three has the emergency lights blinking!'' she complained.
The response to that snowaholic confession column has really been surprising. A few minutes ago, Mike Keane, the utility mechanic for the newspaper, stopped me in the hall.
``Why is it that the weather people on television always say we have some `bad weather' coming our way when they are talking about snow?'' he asked.
Mike said he'd like to be the judge of whether it's good or bad.
He likes snow, he said.
And some other snow lovers have gotten in touch. Debbie Kaufman of Cenit Bank in Norfolk faxed me a nice letter with a ``Dennis the Menace'' cartoon showing Dennis pulling drapes aside to watch a snowfall blanketing the neighborhood.
``Boy, I thought nice weather would NEVER get here,'' he says.
Debbie writes: ``I am a snowaholic also. I thought I was the only one in town. You should establish a Snow Lovers Anonymous chapter.''
Another fine letter came from Shirley S. Fremd of Gentle Road in Portsmouth. She writes:
``My name is Shirley F. and I am a snowaholic. Is there a 12-step program for us? I hope not. I live for winter. Can't stand summer. . . .
``I, too, am addicted to The Weather Channel. I stay glued to the TV when a cold front is dipping down from Canada and a moisture-laden low is swinging up from the gulf.
``I'm on pins and needles waiting for that beautiful computer-generated snowflake to show up on the screen over our area, only to have my hopes dashed by the snow/rain line creeping north of Hampton Roads.
``I would not care if I ever received another gift if instead I could go to bed one Christmas Eve with snow gently but steadily falling and awaken Christmas morning to a sparkling blanket of white!''
Marguerite Kerris of Exmore, over on the Eastern Shore, wrote to ask if she could get a card like the one produced in the column - showing the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg during a snowfall.
``I am too old to want five feet of snow but I do love it, and I especially love snow scenes,'' she wrote.
Meredith Ferebee of Greencastle Lane in Virginia Beach wrote her note on a card fronted with a photograph of a frozen pond in a city park - bless her!
She wrote: ``I think the people who groan at the idea snow might fall here are the same ones who look disgusted when they hear a poem - no fun. . . . Anyhow, I'm with you.''
Another snow ditto came from Carla Hamlin of Alleghany Loop in Virginia Beach. ``I am writing to let you know that I am a fellow snow lover. I came to this area ten years ago from Iowa, and while I love the ocean, I do miss the snow.''
Thanks, Carla. Glad we see eye to eye on this one.
Photographer Gayle Donovan says she's suffered like the rest of us.
``I grew up here straining my eyes to see a possible flake somewhere out there but generally waking up disappointed in the morning,'' she said.
She believes we should invest more psychic energy thinking about snow - to make it happen.
It's been pretty rough on snowaholics so far. Sad but the only snowmobile I ever saw in Hampton Roads played ``Jingle Bells'' and twirled in a nursery ceiling.
Anyone out there who can do an Indian snow dance?