This week we went skiing in our home state, West Virginia. Jan and the kids and I went to Winterplace, near Beckley, WV. It’s a great, family oriented resort, and we had a wonderful time snow-tubing and skiing. However, it was cold.
It was the kind of cold I remember from my childhood. The kind of cold my children have never really known. It was around 5 degrees Farenheit, with wind-chill of (-) 15.
The kind of cold that makes your face hurt, and hangs icicles on your eyelashes and beard. The kind that makes your fingers numb and your bones ache. Basically, normal winter weather in West Virginia. Sadly, we have become thin-blooded South Carolinians. Fortunately, we rallied. The kids loved every minute of the cold and snow, and enjoyed a lovely snowfall of about 8 inches our third night. They didn’t feel the cold the way Jan and I did; in our souls.
And they, of course, didn’t get the singular pleasure of buying and organizing winter gear, pushing it on their hands and feet, pulling it off, constantly re-wrapping scarves, and all the rest.
As I look back on all of it, I realized that WV natives probably don’t go south for the temperature so much as to avoid wrestling their children and grandchildren into and out of layers of fleece, nylon and rubber. In the end, it’s hilarious and I wouldn’t have missed a minute.
However, I do have an insight. As cold as we were, maybe a little global warming is not such a bad thing. I mean, Winter is a delightful luxury if you’re well off and can afford fuel and clothes and food.
But if you’re poor and cold, then only Spring offers real hope. Perhaps, in order to support us all, earth is just raising the thermostat. Who knows?
All I know is that it was fun to be cold again and a delight to watch my little ones roll around like Polar Bears in more white stuff than they had ever seen in their lives to date.
And it’s nice to be home.
Ed
PS If you want to go to Winter Place, consider staying at Glade Springs Resort. It was very nice and economical for a family of four children and two adults!
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