Flushing, Queens, NYC. Circa 1950. I was 11 and couldn’t wait for the first real snowfall, usually about November 25th Snow meant sleigh riding. (Not one horse, but actually, one boy). You carried your sleigh, or maybe your big folded-over cardboard box, up a hill near your neighborhood. There was always at least one hill, even in the big city.
I had a sleigh. Can’t remember how I got it. Maybe a hand-me-down from my older brother. It wasn’t called Rosebud. I called it “sleigh.” You ran and rode your sleigh on your belly down the hill, only to have to carry it back up the hill to ride it down again.
If you had a big box, you’d tear it down and just sit on one end of it and fold it over your feet and up to your waste. You then rode it down the hill.
Somehow, we thought that was great fun. Lord help us, we didn’t have an iPhone to entertain us inside. We went outside, got cold and wet and laughed a helluva lot. Poor us.
Time marches on. It’s now January, 1956, I’m a junior at Bayside High School. It snowed last night and roads were impassable and a miracle happened. They closed the school. No freakin E-learning. We actually got a day off. So did the teachers. It’s sleigh ride, snow ball fight, or if you can get to Central Park, ice skating time. We again welcomed the snow.

Since I didn’t have a car. Lotsa New Yorkers didn’t have cars. Where the hell do you park it? Why do you need one? Mass transit worked well. We had buses, subways, and taxis ( for the rich). To get to college I just took two buses. I walked two blocks to catch the Q28 bus to Downtown Flushing. From there with a free transfer, I caught the Q44 bus to Queens College. Took close to an hour.
Reverse to come home. Worked great usually. Snow was a problem. They slowed a bunch and waiting on the corner for 30 minutes when it’s 20 degrees and snowing ain’t fun.
Snow was not so delightful then. It was just a delay maker. Not much time for sleigh riding.
It was also a pain when I needed to go to my orthodontist monthly, but doable.

Life goes on. I’m now an Air Force captain, married with three young’uns and my lovely wife from Charleston. She never saw snow until the Air Force, and I dragged her first to Ohio where she quickly fell on her behind in the icy snow. From then on she actually hated the sweet white flurries.
So the Air Force and I thought it would be a good idea to take this southern flower to Denver, Colorado in 1970. Smart move, Don. Whenever we awakened and it was snowing, Marjorie looked out the window and said “Sheeit”. Great start to a day. Snow had evolved from a “can’t wait” phenomenon to an “Oh Sheeit” phenom.

Time passes a bunch. After a 22 year absence, the Air Force finally got us back to Charleston in September, 1989. On Christmas Eve of that fateful year, while we were in full recovery mode from Hugo, Charleston experienced a record 6 inch snowfall in a blizzard. The base and city were shut down. We had to get snow removal equipment from Lockbourne AFB, Ohio, since we had none. It ain’t sposed to snow in Charleston.
The snow removal equipment arrived quickly and the base was fully operational in about 24 hours. Just another challenge. LOL. Snow kinda sucks.

We survived that challenge too. Two years later, 1991, I retired from the Air Force and we stayed in Charleston, of course.
We moved into a third story condo unit on the Charleston Battery. Thank God it’s got an elevator. We’ve now been there 33 years. Yesterday we had a bad snow and ice storm. Only about 3 inches, but very cold and lotsa black ice. My wife and I are in our eighties with serious mobility challenges. Snow and ice are treacherous to us. From shear delight, through minor inconvenience to major hindrance. We are almost prisoners of our condo unit until the freakin snow melts. Snow sucks. Enuf.