The Great Winter Storm of 2008

This is Christmas Eve late afternoon.   The gray day darkens down to charcoal although the light outside is brighter than usual due to the cold white reflection from the snow.  I am alone in the house except for the drowsing cats.  I am working on finishing touches for tomorrow's celebration.  I remember growing up in Portland and remembering a long ago winter when there was snow like we have had the past several days.  Then too,  the snow piled up and,  surprisingly, stayed.  We were able to build a 'sled/ski' jump in the middle of the back street and no one blinked an eye or worried about cars getting through.  There was another big snow,  perhaps the last big one,  when I was in high school.   We sledded then on the back street but I remember the presence of girls as adding an exotic, giddy sense to the experience.   That was the year,  I think,   that we were able to sled down Broadway Drive from  "the fountain"  where several roads split off all the way to downtown and then get a tow on a car bumper back up.   When I was that young,  great winter storms and the persistent piling snow did not seem so out of the ordinary.    And in many parts of the country,  they would not be.    Oregon, though,  is more likely to be the wettest state rather than the whitest.  And,  nearly sixty years down my personal inventory of winters,  I realize that those memories are special.   I am searching in the back of my mind  for the elements of this great storm that will make it memorable years on.    What surfaces now is much different.   There is still a girl and she adds an exotic giddiness to my experiences.   We have been out walking together,  taking pictures and laughing.   Those memories should stick.   The sound of the snow crunching as we walk is memorable, not one we hear here often.   And the silence in the grove of fir except for the sound of snow falling from boughs is peaceful and lovely.   The smiling faces as everyone reverts to walking to reach their destinations is matched by people's willingness to jump in and help break a car loose from a drift or otherwise help out.   This will be a winter my children will recall.   We will have stories and classic images to share.   What a great gift.