Yep! It snowed alright!

It Really Did Snow!

Some would say that by today’s standards, my parents were cruel.  Imagine telling a, soon to be, four year old that unless it snowed on his birthday there would be no birthday party.  But that is exactly what happened.

Trust me.  I have vetted this out time and again.  Both of my parents swore that they had no idea that snow was coming to the desert of Tucson, Arizona on November 16, 1964.  The news wasn’t talking about it, in fact I could not even find evidence of it 50 years later.  But nonetheless, it was a promise that my parents were not prepared to keep, they were just – how do I say – Yanking My Chain!

I had other plans.  I was not going to celebrate my 4^th birthday without a proper party (as I explain what happens next you must realize that I had a practiced ritual of ‘playing pretend;’ of being an explorer with my imagination).  There was a set of closets in our house that were along one wall of a shared bedroom.  These closets were separated by another wall making it a room unto itself.  Clothes were hung at standard height and above, instead of a shelf, was a wall of doors where storage could be placed, or an explorer could explore.  It was also where I could go to be alone…with my thoughts. 

I climbed my 3 year, 364 day old self up into the sacred tunnels and sat alone with my thoughts.  Though it was dark, I closed my eyes (cause it doesn’t work unless you close your eyes) and I asked for a shower of snow from the heavens so that my parents would be compelled to give me a party.  I climbed out of the tunnel and back onto the floor and out the door.

I didn’t think about it for the rest of the day, or even the evening.  I was just thinking about all of the fun I would have…at the party!

I remember the following morning as if it were this morning…50 years ago today.  I was the first one up and about in the house.  I crawled out from between my two older sisters (okay, it was a small house – well a small bedroom anyway), walked into the hallway where there was a wall of glass that looked out over the desert and screamed like a little girl (to be fair, at 4 years old, a scream is just a scream).

It was snowing!  My excitement awakened the house and in moments the entire family was looking at the scene with disbelief.  Now you non-believers…this was in the day before Doppler forecasts, pinpoint accurate forecasts, and trained meteorologists at local television stations.  My parents swore for years after that they had no idea that it was going to snow.  They were just messing with me…trying to throw me off the scent.

It was many years before I told anyone of the silent, fervent prayer that went up inside that closet that previous afternoon, but I knew!  It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with “the man/woman/universal energy upstairs.”  Well, not the beginning.  We actually go way, way back.