The absolutely unbelievable happened here late last week…Thursday December 11, 2008 to be specific, New Orleans and most of Louisiana experienced the rarest of rarieties…it snowed. It SNOWED! This little corner of the South was turned into a Winter Wonderland. It was a brief but very welcomed early Christmas gift. Thursday morning I woke to a barrage of phone calls and text messages telling me to look outside. Some messages simply stated, “It’s Snowing!”
The common thread shared by all were the exclamation marks, whether in text form or in the sound of their voices…the excitement and thrill was definitely there. For those of you out there that are graced with such wintery frozen events each year, what you don’t understand is that an event like this doesn’t come around that often, seriously does not come around that often. There was a very brief snowfall in 2004 on Christmas Day…more sleet than snow, but I was out of town for said event. Then before that in ’93 another sleety snow moment occurred. The closest we ever came to what I would call real snow was back in the 80’s, but it was nothing like what transpired last Thursday. As I ran out onto my balcony, I had my breath taken away by the shear joy of the visual stimuli that was bombarding me. Snow! Real Honest Wintery White Goodness! It was coming down in sheets, quickly covering rooftops, cars, lawns, and anyone that ventured out into it’s downfall. I spotted a couple of kids that had obviously never seen snow in their life run out of their front down, pause a moment, then scream in excitement at the top of their lungs, “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, IT’S SNOWING, IT’S SNOWING!” They paused again and followed it up with, “IT’S LIKE HEAVEN!!!” There’s definitely no denying the joy those two kids felt, and it definitely was shared by all. The local news interrupted programming to follow the unexpected weather phenomenon until it’s bitter end, when the snow stopped, sleet commenced, and then eventually began to melt off.
In this 16th Post It Post, I wanted to show Troy’s excitement (and mine as well) for this Frozen Treat. I also sketched out Troy’s Canine Pal amongst the Icy Powder. I haven’t drawn him much and plan on showing a bit more of him in the Posts to come.
Though it is sad that the event came and went and not even a sign of it’s occurrence still exists with us other than our collective memories and the countless pictures we took, I am still overwhelmed that we were lucky enough to have been given this little treat. It’s been a hard year and it appears that the times ahead might be just as trying, so what the snow gave us down here in New Orleans was a chance to stop, breathe, and play like a child one more time. It was a very welcomed and much longed for break. Below are a few pics I took of my Winter Wonderland and the fun I partook in it. Enjoy!
I miss you snow…please came back soon!