By CAT WILSON
I remember the Blizzard of ’78—well, not clearly and I wasn’t very old. Let’s say that I was less than 10 years old. My most vivid memory from that winter is jumping off the back porch from my house on Arrowhead Drive in Hyannis into a giant snow drift. You should know that we had a walk-out basement, which meant we were jumping from a full story up! I remember a pine tree that came down and just missed the house, but I think it bent our swing-set.
I know a lot of people have been complaining about the record-setting snow this winter. It seems like a new storm every week! Most people want to see the Cape with sunny sandy beaches and ice cream stands 365 day a year—as if we were actually located off the coast of Florida and not New England. I have been lucky enough to live all over the country (Wisconsin, Georgia, California and Washington). That said, Cape Cod is home to me. Hot, cool, cold, dry, wet, muggy, freezing . . . I actually appreciate the change of seasons. I even appreciate a good winter storm on our little sand spit.
I have so many wonderful memories of winters on Cape Cod. My family would go sledding down the hill in front of the old jail on Route 6A in Barnstable Village every winter. When I was in third grade, we moved from Hyannis to Centerville. Have you ever been sledding down Church Hill Road in Centerville? (To me, it was the hill next to the Country Store). We would try to get enough speed on our saucer sleds to skim right across South Main Street! When I got older, I began cross-country skiing. One winter I ended up on the cover of the Sunday Cape Cod Times cross country skiing at the Hyannisport Golf Course with one of my friends. Have you ever seen someone ice sailing? They used to have races on Wequaquet Lake! I don’t know if the lake has frozen solid enough for that in a long time.
Two years ago I was recovering from major surgery when a blizzard hit the Cape. Large areas of the Cape lost power for days—including my neighborhood.
Because of my surgery, I wasn’t even able to take my dogs out to play in the snow, much less shovel myself out. I curled up by the fireplace and read a good book until a friend dug me out. It really wasn’t awful. It was actually kind of peaceful. Last winter, I made the best snowman in my neighborhood—he had a broken rake for a guitar and a set of my old headphones!
I still like making snowmen. I still like going for walks in the snow with my dogs (who often remind me that playing in snow is almost as much fun as playing on the beach). I like warming up with a bowl of chowder with friends. And I have been known to ball up a wad of snow for a friendly battle.
To borrow a line from The Zac Brown Band, I’d rather have “my toes in the water, ass in the sand,
not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand” — But I also appreciate a mug of spiked hot apple cider and the hiss of snow falling in the dark… “Life is good today. Life is good today.”
About Cat Wilson
