In Praise of Winter

 When you get a license plate in Florida one of the "personalized" plate options is one that shows the silhouette of a surfer and the words "Endless Summer".  

Endless Summer - wasn't that the title of a Beach Boys album?  It was what we dreamed of as kids, a time when we had no school, no obligations, and we could do whatever we pleased. We could ride our bikes to the park or to Carvel for an ice cream cone. We could play kickball and four-square in the street, just moving out of the way for the occasional car that came our way, driving slowly, because the neighbors were the only folks who drove those streets and they knew we would be there.  

I dreamed of Endless Summer as I trudged to classes in snowy Ohio and the blizzards of Rochester, NY.  I dreamed of Endless Summer when I began work in Wisconsin, where it hit -29 degrees farenheit with a windchill factor of -78 the first winter I was there.  I dreamed of Endless Summer living in upstate New York when we got more than 210 inches of snow one winter or the winter when it snowed Every. Single. Day. in February.  Sometimes just flurries, but still snow.  

When we retired and moved to Florida I almost got the Endless Summer license plate, but my innate cheapness kicked in (I don't want to pay extra money for a license plate for heaven's sake!).  And then I lived it.  Now, let it be said that I've been in Florida in January when it was quite chilly, and I remember stories of frozen orange trees when I was a youth.  Not exactly surfing weather.  But Floridians know the Northerners because they are the ones who go swimming in December, and while there may have been a week or so when you'd have to be crazy to go in the ocean ( heated pools are always accessible!), it was hardly Winter the way I had experienced it most of my life.   

I discovered Endless Summer was not what I expected.

I thought I would be able to spend Endless Summer playing.  I was semi-retired and we lived within walking distance of the beach.  But I spent my time working and cleaning and rarely got to the beach more than once a week.  

I missed the seasons you have up North - fall and spring, which are really only possible because of winter. I could garden year round, which was a plus.  And I actually planted a store-bought pointsettia in my garden in January and it had red bracts the next Christmas!  I had jasmine blossoming by my front door. But I couldn't grow peonies or lilacs, two of my favorites.  It simply didn't get cold enough for them.  Crape Myrtle looks like lilac, but it doesn't have that perfume that infuses the air.  I  missed the autumnal foliage.  We had trees that lost leaves (at least our neighbors did.  We had no trees, but their dead leaves littered our lawn), but they just dried up and dropped without ever changing color.  I missed that season of rest that winter provides for a gardener -- those months where you can just dream and plan, when you don't have to weed or trim  I  missed the thrill of spring's first signs, when bulbs burst through the ground and the buds of trees and shrubs almost replicate the colors of fall.  

 And I missed the cold.  I love the warm, textured clothing of cold weather, woolen sweaters, cordaroy. pants, and velour dresses.  I love sleeping in flannel sheets, under a down comforter.  You can do that in Florida, of course, but you have to crank the air conditioner really high and electricity is expensive down there.   After five years of Endless Summer I was ready to move back North, and I was rewarded last year with a lot of snow and solid cold days.  This year has been relatively mild for Pennsylvania, but this morning I was walking to the mail box and was startled to realize I like the cold.  I really do.  My Florida friends surely think I'm crazy.  My friend Mary puts on a puffer coat when the temperature hits 70.  But while I enjoy visiting Paradise, Endless Summer is just too long for me.  I'll have a bit of Winter, please.