Winter reveries
Pardon me if I wax nostalgic on this Sunday morning, as I look outside the window at an eleven-inch Missouri snow.
I'm at a friend's house, and I forgot to bring my boots, when I left home... I also forgot to turn the light on in the pump house, so I'm feeling pretty stupid.
Such lack of foresight would never have gotten us through our 7-year stint in Alaska, but, down here in the sunny south (I'm being sarcastic), we haven't had significant snow in at least three years.
The photo was taken our first year in Alaska, when everything was new and exciting. That winter was unusual, as Fairbanks had only 5 inches of snow. I remember being most disappointed.
I needn't have bothered: it never happened again. Most years, we had 8-10 feet. By the time the Thaw came in April, the streets looked like tunnels, with snow piled up 6 feet or more on each side.
All winter, we negotiated through enormous piles of snow in the parking lots of the city.
Worse than the snow was the ice fog, of course, which made the tunnels all the more oppressive.
The only respite from this claustrophobic condition was a trip up the hill to the campus of the University of Alaska, near where we lived in later years, after we built our house.
I tried not to drive up above the blanket of ice fog too often, however, because it was too oppressive to come back down. The university shown like a jewel in the brilliant sun of the clear cold sky.
How could we live like that?
In December the darkness was oppressive. My husband built a beautiful glass-front A-frame, which faced south, and we watched in awe, as December 21 approached. The days grew ever shorter, until, just before Christmas, the sun refused to top the spruce trees across the street.
Our days were twilight, even when the ice fog lifted. No wonder the lights of Christmas were so precious!
Did I like Alaska? Oh, yes, I did. I loved it.
I loved the vitality and the excitement, the rugged people, the crackle of the snow, as the northern lights swirled through the night sky.
Our first child was born three years after that photo was taken. It was a truly magic time, as I had family all around me--above all, my favorite aunt and uncle, cousins, and the good friends I met at the school where I taught.
They're all gone now.
Do I wonder what life would be like now, if we had decided to stay? Yes, of course I do. I didn't want to leave, but I can't imagine being there without all the people who made it so special.
On a snowbound Sunday morning, when church has been called off for dangerous road conditions, I sit and contemplate the many twists and turns our lives take through the years.
Comments
- -- Posted by Dexterite1 on Tue, Dec 10, 2013, at 6:38 AM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Dec 10, 2013, at 1:21 PM
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