I’m guessing this is one of those things that most people who grew up around real winters experienced often as a child. Maybe, like running around with their tongues out, they also ran around trying to catch snowflakes in their eyeballs for fun. I know nothing about this. It occurs to me there are probably a thousand aspects of snow, ice, and other sub-freezing eventualities that I am ignorant of. Did they suck on icicles like ice-pops? Did they crunch the snow drifts like a crème brulee? Did they eat snow-cream? Did they watch as dogs made yellow-rimmed cenotes in snow piles? Did they examine the patterns in frost on window panes? Did they really get their tongues stuck on metal poles? Did they see cave formations in waterfalls? I’ve only read about these things, and as an adult, I don’t make time for finding out myself.
Those precious years when I was a young child and had all the curiosity, time, and patience for exploring the world at a face-to-the-ground level were spent in warmer climes. I know everything there is about ant-lion pits, the paper cuts you get from trying to weave baskets out of giant grasses (the kind with puffy cream plumes), the feel of agave flesh under your finger nails (and how to pinch off the spines and poke them into the leaves like a pomander), and keeping an eye out for water moccasins while hunting for tadpoles. But, I am a novice when it comes to snow.
[Image from: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/book/snowflake.htm]
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