Dear hearts and gentle people... by Joe DeRozier and Samie McFadden #WindowOvertheSink

There are two guests here looking out the Window Over the Sink with me today. What riches that is! I'm sure you'll agree when you read what they have to offer. My thanks to Joe DeRozier and Samie McFadden.

 The first real snow... by Joe DeRozier

One of my favorite memories of a good snowstorm was around 1999. It had snowed hard and continuously, all day.  There was no way my trucks were getting out for donut deliveries.

The worst days are when it snows and accumulates very early.  I've stared out the window a million times...is it slowing down?

Are the plows out?

Is it freezing?

Salt trucks?

I'd hate to halt production just to have the snow stop at six pm, and the snow removal teams at full force.

No, this was one of those days when it is so bad that you KNOW you can't deliver, and all your accounts know it. 

It’s evening, and I’m wired because I’m usually in full work mode.

The kids and I watch the snow come down by the bucketload and are amazed by the beauty of it as it hangs on the trees and blankets our cars.

Thumper (Nicole) konks out early, as is her habit, but Dodi and I stay up to watch it.

After a while, I ask her, "Hey, Doe, what do you think about walking around in this?"

She enthusiastically said she would love it, and after her mommy's protests fell on our deaf ears, I bundle her up to the point that she can hardly move. Under her hat, and above her scarf, all I can see are two big eyes that are very blue and very excited.

As we descend down the porch, I realize she is too small overcome the snowbanks, so I throw her on my shoulders and hold her hands

We venture down the sidewalk past the Shenemans’ and Dawalts’ homes...their lights are on and smoke is coming from the chimneys of their snow-covered roofs.

It is cold, but not the kind of cold that you feel through your being... it's the kind that after you're moving around, you feel comfortable...it was an absolute, living, Norman Rockwell painting.

I'd occasionally pick her off my shoulders and throw her into a huge snowbank.  She'd hit it and sink in with the sound that fresh snow makes when being manipulated...THHHUUMPH

The way she laughed...I saw her bright blue eyes crinkle and the sound of a child absolutely giddy with laughter...the most beautiful music in the world.  Every parent knows this sound. And every parent gets a slight lump in their throat while reading about it, as it brings back the memories of their own young child, making that most beautiful sound...

We get to the St. Charles playground. We climb the snow mountain to the rim of the basketball rim, where we make snowballs and push them through the hoop.

We trek farther north. There’s a train on the tracks.  We stand hand-in-hand, and watched the train go...we check each car and comment on all the graffiti.   Graffiti can be very pretty...

We get to Boulevard and climb a steep hill.  When we get to the top, Daddy does somersaults all the way to the bottom, as Dodi slides on her bottom.

 

I feel snow slide down my back and up my pant legs all the way down. It’s completely worth it to hear that musical masterpiece of a child's laughter once again.

As we walk home, I see Dodi looking at everything with such amazement...we forget, as adults, the beauty that every season brings, and it isn't until times like this that your mind is jolted back to a time when you appreciated such wonderment..

We get back home, and after I received a slight scolding from Mommy, we get Dodi into some warm dry clothes.

Completely tuckered from our adventures, she goes right to sleep.

I remember sitting on the couch, thinking...

I was thinking that I'd never, ever forget this time...

***

by Samie McFadden

But hey
What can you do?
Contribute protest create donate
Eat more eat less exercise stretch
Sound off educate debate research read test validate consolidate
communicate hibernate
Vaccinate medicate isolate procreate
Teach preach listen pray leave stay
Walk run jog kick scream soothe
pacify justify unify amplify
Think write
Make art make music make love make peace make a statement
Grow a garden shop locally open a business care globally
Say no say yes discuss resist
Run for office serve an office expose an office
Judge love dance
But do it because you choose to
And do it now.
That's what you can do.