Member-only story
Why I love Snowflakes
Appreciating beauty that is beyond words
I love snowflakes. I have loved snowflakes since the very first time I saw one. When I was a little kid growing up in the Bronx one of the most depressing things for me was having Christmas or New Year’s arrive, looking out the window, and seeing snow. Even worse were those feeble little snowstorms that were beautiful but within a day or so turned to black mushy slush.
As a child, my favorite moment of the year was when the first snowfall arrived. It usually took place in October or November. The best snowflakes ones were the ones that were large, white, and fluffy. When it was cold enough the snowflakes would actually stick to the window and we could look at their patterns through a magnifying glass.
I also remembered that there was a product called Glass Wax that was used to clean windows. After Thanksgiving people would spray Glass Wax on windows so these windows would look like snowflakes.
It was heaven for me when I turned 50 and my wife decided that we needed to leave the city and buy a farmhouse in the Catskill Mountains of Northwest New York. When it snowed there, it really snowed. Sometimes we would get 5 feet of snow. It was a good thing we had a good supply of food in the basement freezer since we might be snowed in for a week.
