This isn’t a snow town. We’re more a rainy and cold sort of folk, and when the “white stuff” hits PDX we all panic a bit. Now, I’m a native lowlands northwester and never learned to drive in the snow, so I’m not sure what excuse all you transplants from the midwest and east coast have. But it’s true, in Portland all it takes is an inch of snow and you’ll be snowed in.
Here’s the awesome part: the sense of wonder and joy that overwhelms the city, regardless of age. There’s the silence of a snowy morning – a hush as cars stay home, industry comes to a halt, people watch the hypnotic flakes fall from the sky. There’s the lack of green, something we never really see here, as our lawns and trees are coated in white fluff. And there’s the fairy tale glow of a snowy winter, the promise of snowmen and snowball fights and snow angels that are so rare in this part of the country. Life at 300 feet above sea level is more temperate than you could imagine.
So forgive us when our city shuts down after so little snow. Cut us some slack if we need chains to drive down the block. We’re busy being mesmerized by a rare phenomenon that may not come back next year, and we have to enjoy it while it lasts.
Thank you Stacy. The “real” snow people might mock us, but they can’t take away our sense of wonder.
d.
I think it’s a universal sense of wonder, regardless of how ‘accustomed’ you might be. Sure, ‘them hill dwellers’ might only be bewildered for the first snow or the heaviest or the earliest… they still feel it.
The public photostream on Flickr, as anecdotal evidence: yesterday, it was 60% snow pictures.
I thought this was going to be a link to that funny cars on ice portland video!