Ed's Blog

From Thanksgiving to Snow and Cold

Growing up in Syracuse, NY, I've seen my share of snow. I came to Buffalo in 1980, so I missed the famous blizzard of 1977, but when I was a kid, I recall the blizzard of 1966 in Syracuse. The snow was so deep, it covered our house. I mean you could not look out of a window in our house. That's saying something - our picture windows must be somewhere between 8 - 10 feet off the ground level, and the snow simply drifted over our house ... creating an igloo effect. To get into our house there was a virtual snow tunnel to the front door since the snow drifts merged with the snow on the roof.

It was fun playing in that weather ... and I remember that days later, after the eventual meltdown, I discoverd that I had been having snow ball fights and digging snow caves ... somewhere above a number of parked cars. The cars were so far below snow that we never realize they were there.

This is a very old watercolor of a very old house, along a ... you guessed it, a very old road connecting Camillus with Marcellus, outside of Syracuse. It's a beautiful stretch of country road that twists and turns with steep hills rising up on either side, ... you're sort of hidden from the rest of the world. Along side of you, a gurgling stream (0r if it's springtime, a raging one) keeps pace with your car. It was along here that I'd hear Mom talk about tales of Ireland and of distant relatives. Supposedly, Mom had a distant cousin or two that farmed along the beautiful rolling hills in Marcellus - Jr. Shay. This is a sort of enchanting drive for me, I know all of the backroads around here - rolling hills, hidden or dissappearing lakes, and numerous streams. As a kid, we'd go looking for rocks here, or along connected roads between here, Skaneateles Lake, and elsewhere. Very New York ... very, very, .... memorable. This painting, althouth an early work and not nearly of the quality of her other paintings, hangs above my bed.

posted by Unknown @ 7:02 PM