Charlotte once was a quiet place, a place where stores were closed on Sunday, and the only sound you would hear before 7AM was that of song birds.
Now, when it snows if only for a brief moment the silence returns. Only the sound of falling snow flakes and a winter's wind. It surrounds my soul and comforts my heart.
Snow in Charlotte brings panic to most Southerners and disaster to some, yet to me its a welcome respite from the normal dullness of a Carolina winter. It never lasts long and since our Carolina Spring is only a few weeks away, I have no fear, and no need to rush it away. Which may explain why Southerners never shovel their driveways and why we build snowmen, they are the last sentries to fall when the sun returns often on the same day of a morning snow.
I listen to the pines and the wind sings a song of cold and ice. It eases and then swirls around the backside of my home and down the golf course fairway to the creek that lies just beyond the flood lights.
Its more than an hour before dawn and the snow is coming down in layers of cotton like softness. Now is the time I feel most alive, and in the wonder of it all there is no darkness as the snow brightens everything.
Within a hour of sunrise the golf course fairway behind and the street in front of my home will be alive with a children's joyous chorus of laughter, a day without rules, a day with snow.
And soon transplanted Yankees who brought snow shovels to their new southern homes will began clearing their driveways. A nerve jarring old habit, their metal shovels scrap across the concrete to remove less than an inch of snow. The echos of scrapping, banging, and grinding will continue until noon when at last every inch of what they consider, terrible white powder is removed. A snow free driveway is a sure sign of a northerner in a southern city.
But for now with coffee in hand and two black labs by my side the snow and the silence is mine and mine alone and it whispers peace.
10 comments:
That is how I spent my morning, coffee, Bella my boxer, the view and PEACE all around :-) What a morning!
I had an excellent morning romp in the backyard with my dog.
Great post.
Good job Cedar. You are so right about the silence it is wonderful.
I love how you very subtly crack on northerner's so many of them are stuck with old habits. I hate the sound of people shoveling a driveway, so pointless. I even have a neighbor who last year ran his snow blower clearing his driveway and sidewalk in about 15 minutes and never thought once about doing ours or anyone else’s.
Please go back to BuffAlow!
Great Post! Too bad ur a hater tho
LOL Cedar saw one of them damn YANKEES with a clear driveway on Rea Road. Snow Snickers for him!
Love this one, Cedar.
(And thanks for all you do on here for CMPD!)
I'm glad to see you do still write about things other than RoMo Cop, Rob-T, Clown Curt, RayRay and Manson Jackson.
Cedar, I love your blog. You are a great writer, but wasting your talent here. You need to get over the bigotry that you have toward northerners. If it were not for us your family would still own slaves and you would still be allowed to marry your sister. Get over the Yankee vs. Redneck thing, you are better than that. There are bigger fish to fry. And last time I checked Charlotte was settled by the Scot-Irish from PA so get over yourself.
As is sit in my nice warm living room with the fire place burning a red glow and the sun glimmering off the snow I watch my two neighbors across the street shoveling their drives. Obviously northern transplants. They just dont get it...It will be gone in just one more day due to the graciousness of mother nature..Oh I am so tired I must lay on the couch and partake of more spirits.
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