Things We Take For Granted: DC in the Winter

Photo by Maria Helena Carey, who grew up in the tropics, so lay off.

So perhaps you’re staring in puzzlement at the title, wondering if April Fools’ arrived a few months early.

But think about it for a few precious seconds: do we get enough snow to turn psychotic by May?  Even if we did get decent, mildly Biblical amounts of snow a year ago, our totals were still not what, say, the greater New York area received a couple of weeks ago.  Or what everyone in areas where it SNOWS, with a capital everything, get any given winter.

Sure, it’s a winter on training wheels around these here parts: there are seldom legends like our Snowmageddon, after all; but that is the part of the charm, isn’t it?  (Incidentally, do you want extra bragging rights for having survived Snowmageddon, friend?  You need a  t-shirt whose profits benefit a local charity, then.)

As the temperatures drop and the leaves turn and do the same, we get to enjoy a little version of the grandeur and splendor of the north, without having to drive several hours to do so.  We also get to enjoy crunching leaves as we walk down grand avenues and boulevards; then we get the zen of bare branches against lovely homes and stately monuments.  The empty look of winter brings out the dainty charms of the city into focus– its neat rows of homes; the low skyline that some may wish rose higher into the skies but which gives the city that quaintness that makes walking pleasant and not crowded and oppressive and  which feels like the human equivalent of salmon swimming upstream (alas, seldom to mate).  Then there are the delights of warm sweaters, heavy coats, cute new hats and boots!  (Oh, the boots!)  We still get to see the mists of our breath swirl around, and the excitement of at least some snow is a fun reality every winter– just a little bit of happy novelty, which usually doesn’t take the coordinated effort of several government agencies to clean up with snowplows as big as houses.  We have a hockey team, which seems to be a requirement of a wintry town unless you are, say, San Jose, California.  We can get our skate on at the Sculpture Garden, or witness others being graceful on the ice while we dream about knowing how to skate.

(Aside: There is clearly a need for a mobile Hot Chocolate truck to start rolling down the streets, right now.)
All in all, and especially when you’re stuck in a place where it’s pouring rain and you’re being accosted by ten thousand people on foot trying to get to the same nowhere, it’s nice to realize that while winter may not be palatable to many, it’s nice and calm and sometimes downright charming in Old DC.