It’s no fooling, snow is my Kryptonite
Published 5:29 pm Tuesday, December 10, 2013
I once sang “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.” I sang that song because my two front teeth were missing. I was just a boy.
This Christmas season I’m singing “All I Want for Christmas is Two Feet of Snow.” I’m singing that song because I want snow before, during and after Christmas. Usually, I want snow so I can eat snow cream. This year, I want snow because I want to see snow falling, snow on the ground and snow on the trees, especially pines, cedars and other evergreens.
Yes, a little snow for snow cream would be welcome, too.
When I observe big, set snowflakes lazily descending to the ground, a calming feeling overcomes me. The more the snow accumulates on the ground, rooftops and car hoods, the more my troubles and woes melt away. I’d rather those troubles and woes melt away than the snow.
I don’t mind if a brisk wind — or blizzard conditions for that matter — make the falling snow whirl and whirl before covering the yard, the cul-de-sac and the nearby softball fields. Just that ever-so-light snowfall before Thanksgiving had me excited.
But this year, it’s going to take more than just an occasional dusting of snow to appease my desire for snow. I want to measure snow in feet, not inches this year. Yes, I know, that chances of that happening in eastern North Carolina are slim. I can hope for it. After all, Christmas is a season of hope.
I’d prefer the Great Snowfall of 2013 begin about noon the Friday before Christmas and snow — heavily —for 24 hours. That way I’d have Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and all of Sunday to enjoy all that snow. Two feet of snow would be nice, but I would settle for a foot of the white powder. About now, I suspect the snow-plow drivers with the N.C. Department of Transportation are wishing I would disappear, along with any chance of snow falling that weekend before Christmas.
Why am I not wishing for snow Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after Christmas?
I want the roads clear so I can leave Washington and visit family those days – and then return to work. I want to enjoy my mother’s cooking and watching the young ones in the family unwrap Christmas presents
Yes, I love snow and snow cream, but not that much.
Mike Voss is the senior member of the newsroom at the Washington Daily News.
About Mike Voss
Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.
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