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CockercombeTuff t1_j5to654 wrote

Reply to comment by DuckMan6699 in When was the last winter it didn’t snow? by Phl_worldwide

I mean, once upon a time it meant a snow day and for some (I realize not for all*) a break from obligations and a moment to have fun without all the planning and cost of vacations, whether as a kid or a parent or just an adult temporarily jumping back into kid activities with friends.

It wasn’t even that long ago. I was off from work (law firm) a week in early Feb 2010 while living in DC because it was the third major snowstorm (2-3ft, blizzard conditions, etc) that season and the city budget for clearing the roads was kicked 😆. I wasn’t a lawyer, so I didn’t have a secure work laptop. My roommates and I had blast that week. Internet was down for part of it, we had a fireplace, and lived in a walkable area.

It’s great we’ve solved some issues caused by blizzards now, but the downside is that we’ve also eliminated the enjoyable side of the same coin.

*Especially for major metro/urban/suburban areas, there’s a job/obligation/expectation and class divide that is stark when a blizzard rolls through. Small towns, IME, are more forgiving of this, non-chain businesses might just close for the day, or used to. It makes me sad that we couldn’t have more truly collective, real holidays, even Thanksgiving is a bit poisoned by non-holiday demands.

Come to think of it, the stark class and job obligation divide that is on display during blizzards is in a similar way one of things that really made the COVID pandemic so painful and riddled with anger and frustration. People who were privileged enough to get “hygge” or pursue a new hobby or workout at home or whatever were often the same people demanding obligations and expectations from those that couldn’t.

Didn’t mean for a long comment, it just got me thinking.

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fritolazee t1_j5tpovk wrote

I love snow, shoveling, hot chocolate, feeling my nose go numb, the beauty of it fresh, the ugly of it dirty and half melted, all of it. Bring it!

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GruffWaffle835 t1_j5ttluq wrote

I'm with you! The world feels hushed and suspended in time for a brief moment. Everything looks magical. Winter is my favorite season and snow my favorite weather.

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CockercombeTuff t1_j5tzsuc wrote

You are spot on about the quiet and just overall busy-ness. It makes you truly recognize how "loud" the world is, the overwhelming signal to noise ratio (in favor of noise). Makes me miss running on country roads in the spring and fall (for college track/cross country).

Next spring, if the opportunity presents itself, try Wissahickon or Pennypack (or similar parks outside the city if that's where you are) after a good rain and the sun breaks out. I've gotten that feeling of quiet--at least from human created sound/noise--and suspended time at those moments.

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GruffWaffle835 t1_j5u7nys wrote

I'm in NW Philly and it's a goal of mine to make it to the Wissahickon when it's snowing sometime this year! I'll have to time it right so that the roads are safe to drive on and the snow is coming down heavy enough so that it's sticking but not so heavy that I'll have a hard time getting around. But I always experience that god-I'm-so-small sense of awe when I'm there and I'm sure the snow would only dial it up. I wouldn't be happy living in a rural environment year round, but the hushed quality of snow makes me appreciate the unique quality of stillness that you only get when it feels like there's no one else around.

As a small digression, I'm convinced that so many people hate winter only because our culture deemphasizes and devalues anything to do with slowing down. Winter should be a time of rest, recovery, taking stock, looking ahead. Of course people hate it when we're being forced to go go go at any costs when it feels so counterintuitive to this time of the year. (I mean, capitalism is still a problem in the summer; I just think that messaging makes winter in particular a difficult time to deal with.)

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CockercombeTuff t1_j5u9wi0 wrote

Yeah, this is the first year in a long while in which I have finished the holidays and felt a real sense of slowing down--or well, I did until I recently adopted a puppy. But the I feel the desire to just disconnect and hibernate--not entirely, since I am a very outgoing and active person, but relative to my baseline. All the years living in New Orleans were kind of exhausting, even for me. Halloween through like April/May was constant: the holidays, Mardi Gras season, St Patrick's/St Joe's, Mardi Gras Indians, Easter, French Quarter Fest, JazzFest, Bayou Boogaloo...crazy busy.

The summer was the downtime.

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LFKhael t1_j5u0xm0 wrote

I don't mean to channel a specific youtube channel, but god the "cities aren't loud, specific things in them are" rings so damn true if you stop for a minute and analyze the noise sources.

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CockercombeTuff t1_j5u7wau wrote

I mean, that is a bit of a pedantic point (I don't mean that as a personal attack). The full phrase would be "cities are loud places." The specific things are all human-created machines, processes, actions, etc., and cities have way more people and thus way more of these specific things. I don't get what point the youtube channel is getting at.

The specific things exist in my Jersey Shore hometown, but my current street in Philadelphia is way noisier right now in January than Ocean Ave, thus by extension, the city is a loud place, and the noise is constant. Even 3am is not exactly peaceful on my street.

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fritolazee t1_j5u02xh wrote

I lived in west philly during a big snow in 2010-11ish and I remember people had lights up in their street trees. It created a kind of tunnel of sorts made up of retainer walls from the old houses, snowdrifts, and the tree trunks/lit up tree canopy, which were also covered in snow. It was so magical to walk through at night. All this sloppy cold rain can bite me.

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Garwoodwould t1_j5tp4qo wrote

All snow means to me is... shoveling. And, l'd rather not. l don't care if it never snows again

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