Dreaming of a White Christmas

 Advent Calendar December 5, 2022: Dreaming of a White Christmas

For many people…that four letter word that they fear the most is….SNOW. Yeah, I know. How can you fear snow? It’s just frozen rain. Many people freak out when it starts snowing and they rush out to stock up on the eggs and milk from the grocery stores because they fear they are going to be “snowed in.” And I get it…it’s not fun shoveling or driving in it. But still…I love it. Always have and always will. As a kid I think that my love affair with snow began because it reminded me of Christmas. And in Watertown, that meant that almost every year it was going to be a White Christmas. I remember my Grandmother complaining about having to deal with it. When she heard a big storm was coming (or even a little storm) she prayed hard that God would prevent it from being too bad. I on the other hand, prayed that the Lord would let it snow, snow, snow! More often than not, mother nature and God, seemed to side with me. I started looking forward to snow right after Labor Day, and when we hit October in Watertown, that meant snow was not far behind. Our first flakes usually started falling right after a hard freeze. And I would listen to our local weather guy every night to see if there was a chance of snow in the forecast. Dan Burgess was the guy and knew as much about weather as…well me. He was not a meteorologist like we have today. Just a local legend broadcaster who had his own kids show and did sports and weather on WWNY TV and on the radio. But when Danny said there might be snow in the forecast, I got real excited. One year, right before Halloween, Danny said that the rain that was forecast for that evening could briefly change to snow overnight. And I stayed up (really weird kid) and couldn’t wait to see it change from “President Rain” to “President Snow.” You see there happened to be a Presidential election that year so all I thought of was just like there was a transition from Ford to Carter happening, that “President Rain” was going to transition to “President Snow.” And I was going to be there when the Inauguration took place. So I stayed up. And I watched the rain coming down and waited. In those days, there was no Weather Channel or Weather Bug…just a station that scanned a camera over several weather dials that showed temperature, humidity, and Barometric pressure. I was fixed on that channel watching the temperature dial. I realized that when that dial hit 32 F, then “President Snow” would make his appearance. Late into the evening, it happened. The rain began changing to snow. It had arrived. Snow was here! I was excited and tired. So I went to sleep. Dreaming of a White Christmas. I awoke to…just rain. Apparently, the election had been called to soon. Rain was still in charge. It was after all, just mid-October. Within a month though, the snow would be back. And the winter of 1976/1977 was the snowiest on record in Watertown. And that year, we did in fact have a white Christmas. I live in Albany now. And Albany just doesn’t get as much snow as Watertown. And I can’t think of the last time we had a white Christmas. But I am hoping for this year. I will keep dreaming of a white Christmas.

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