Our First Snow Day

I went to the snow for my first time in over twenty years!  My first time was during my high school’s Senior Ditch Day.  Four of us drove up to Big Bear and found a cheap place near the bottom of the mountain to play in the snow.  I had my Nike sneakers on and I recall how wet my feet got, but even without the proper wardrobe seeing the snow for the first time was such a joy!  I, like many of my childhood friends didn’t grow up in families that made these trips or got to experience the many holiday adventures that other kids got.  I was from the barrio, living in a two-bedroom apartment with eighteen other people- our fun was going to Thrifty’s drugstores after Easter or Halloween with a couple bucks to raid all the holiday candy on sale.  My social highlights were weddings and quinceañeras were I sat on a chair taking care of the kids that fell asleep because the parties lasted way past their bedtimes. 

Now as an adult, I like to do things to make-up for the many experiences that I didn’t get to have.  Hitting the snow yesterday was such a joy to the little deprived child inside.  We went to Mount Baldy because it was close enough and didn’t require me to get chains on my tires. While there wasn’t as much snow as I hoped it was still such a delight to be out in nature.  My friend and I had quite a laugh riding the lift up for our very first time, because we got on the bench without directions and forgot to pull down the safety bar.  The park attendant was screaming at us to pull it down as we were quickly moving up the mountain.  After pulling the lever down we laughed terrified at our ignorance.

At the top we got to participate in snow tubing.  Though mostly parents with their children were the ones on this part of the park, my friend and I had a blast being children. Sliding down and then making the trek back up left us winded, but in a good way.  Due to Covid we were there with only a small group of people, thus we were able to go down the snow slide as much as we wanted.  Then we took a little break to build our very first mini snowman.  Working with the snow trying to shape a little figure was again an experience full of laughter.  I think for both of us it was our first making a snowman.  We finally, traded the idea of a hot chocolate for local ale and enjoyed the white mountain beauty as we sipped our beers.