Frank, if you feel the need to close this thread, then go ahead. There are far too many of these now. I won’t be disappointed, I promise.
But I’m completely serious with this question. I’ve known a few people who have never seen snow. Some were from Sydney, one was from Florida.
My sister’s second grade teacher had never seen snow until she came here. She was originally from Hawaii. Ironically, her last name was…wait for it…Snow!
Funny.
Even funnier, it snows in Hawaii.
I was on a Utah field trip with a couple of Brazilians who’d never seen snow. While we got close to some on a high ridge line, they still went home having never touched the stuff.
To borrow from a Bush joke… That’s “Brazillians” from Brazil, not a whole bunch of people.
I swear it snowed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when I was a little girl in second grade. We could see specks of it in the air, but nothing accumulated on the ground.
After that, I didn’t see it again till I was nineteen. We visited North Carolina’s Mount Mitchell, and there was a small amount on the ground. I had to run around to collect enough for a snowball.
I saw it “for real” just a few years ago, when we went on a ski trip. I think it’s really beautiful and special and all that, but now that I’m older, I can see where living with it could be a real pain in the ass.
A friend I had in college had never seen snow until he was 18. (He was from Santa Monica). My kids saw it for the first time last year when they were 7 and 9.
A FOAF hadn’t seen it until he was in his 40s, I believe. He grew up in SoCal. He was comfortable with earthquakes, wild fires, and mudslides. But the very idea of snow freaked him out. He honestly thought it would kill him.
That was me. Had a tiny amount of snow in Gainesville, Florida when I was in second or third grade. They let the entire school outside to see it. And that evenign we scraped waht we coudl off the swimming pool covers and made tiny snowmen to stick in the freezer.
First “real” snow was when I moved waaaay up north to Athens, GA. Fell asleep studying and when I woke up, everything was white. I never heard it fall. Freaky.
I’m not scared of snow but I’ve never seen a lake or river frozen over. The whole idea freaks me out. Walking on water?
I won’t mention ice fishing then.
It’s not very loud, you know. In fact one of the best things about a steady snowfall is how quiet the world becomes. It was snowing today and when I was outside in it I had to stop and listen to the quiet for a few seconds. I was in the city during a busy Thursday afternoon yet everything was somewhat quieter.
I love snow.
Didja know that sometimes the water freezes in waves? It’s amazing. I’ve only seen it in person once (I don’t usually go down to the lake in the wintertime), but I’ll never forget it. There were these huge waves, taller than my head, and they just…stayed there! While I walked around and under them! Even for a chick born and raised in Chicagoland, that was pretty stunning.
Generally, you don’t hear it fall. It sneaks down from the sky real quiet-like.
Walking on frozen water isn’t the problem - walking on frozen water starting to crack and come apart under your feet, THAT’s a problem (yes, I speak from experience, but we got to safe ground before we fell through)
You can’t hear snow fall; it’s silent. It really seems to mute out the whole world, though. It’s somehow more than silent!
It never occurred to me that people might be scared of snow or frozen rivers/lakes. They can be dangerous if the ice isn’t thick enough, but it isn’t scary to see.
I do not think those are wave that suddenly froze the instant before they crashed onto the beach. I remember having seen something similar on a small lake and they formed over a period of time. I’m not sure how they form but my guess is that as the ice freezes and expands the ice gets pushed out over the surface of the lake. If there is melting and re-freezing it can also contribute.
Still, quite impressive and beautiful no matter how they formed.
You know, I’ve been alive now through 33 snowy winters, and EVERY SINGLE TIME, I’m startled by the silence of the first snow fall of the year. I just get so programmed by the noise of rain that I somehow forget snow is silent.
Here’s another one! Once in my life, actual snow fell from the sky where I live. It melted as it approached the ground, and I never saw it anyway because I was asleep. Seen hail and sleet, but never snow.
I had a classmate once who was on exchange from somewhere in the Carribean (I go to school in Eastern Canada). One day, we came out of class to find the first snowfall of the year silently falling. He instantly threw down his bags and ran out into the snow. He ran around joyously, putting his face up to the sky, sticking his tongue out to catch flakes, making and throwing little snowballs. It was such an unbridled and childlike show of wonder from an otherwise somewhat serious and reserved guy, it was fantastic to watch and honestly I was a little jealous!
I posted a few years ago about my first experience of actually seeing snow falling in Australia: link.
If you ever hit Minnesota in the winter, look me up. I’ll take you walking on water - ice fishing if you want though I haven’t done it for years (my eight year old daughter and nine year old son did it last weekend with my dad though. And were catching sunfish. Keepers even). Snowmobiling. I normally don’t DO these things mind you - I’m more of an inside girl, but I’m capable of them.
Rivers - don’t walk on those - running water doesn’t tend to freeze over real safe.
Oh, and it probably wasn’t real snow in Athens. I went on a business trip in the Bay Area one year and some flakes fell from the sky while I was there and stuck to the ground. They pulled me out to show me that it SNOWED. I looked at them and said “that’s really cute.”
Middle-aged Australian, here. Didn’t see snow until I was well in my 40s, a couple of years ago (on a family driving trip to Tasmania in winter). The first I saw of it was in small heaps (about a foot high) on the side of the road. Got out and inspected it - I wanted to touch it, look at it as closely as I could, kind of absorb its essence, I guess.
The sense of childlike glee was wonderful. It was quite an abandoned feeling - all those years of adulthood melted away and I felt like I was in one of those winter picture books that we all grew up with but I had never experienced first hand. It felt like meeting a fairy-tale character in real life. This from a foot-high pile of snow.
Later, I saw heavier falls (but nothing like the full white carpet thing). The patterns made in the air by snow blowing about in a strong wind was one of the most captivating sights I have seen.
I could have gone skiing at any time in my life, I suppose, but I wasn’t interested at all. And I am glad, because a consequence was the feeling of unalloyed joy I had when I finally saw snow. Those of you whose circumstances lead you to take it for granted I fear have lost something wonderful.