It was snowing harder now. Coming down very heavy and with those big wet flakes. I love the snow. Ever since the big storm that hit Wichita during my Freshman or Sophomore year of high school I've been a big fan of those lovely crystalline flakes that greet us from the grey winter clouds. We were friends before but that storm cemented our relationship for life. We were out of school for a whole week. A week full of snow forts and sledding. Pushing stuck cars and snowball fights. Gloves and hats occupying the heat vents around the kitchen and living room while we ate our sandwiches and planned our next adventure. What a week. It all started on Sunday morning. It was beginning to snow in earnest as we headed to church. By the time we came out of the service the snow was several inches deep. The anticipation of missing some school was already part of my thought process and the excitement continued to build as the day wore on. By night we were out tromping around in over a foot of snow and it was still falling. My recollection is we ended up with 21" total. Monday morning began our dream week with several consecutive fun filled days in a row. That memory will accompany me the rest of my days, Lord willin', and it is a significant part of my appreciation for snow. Now back to the previous tale. The snow was coming down heavier now and I just thought it could be a sign that I should go ahead a make the call. My room mate at Southwest Baptist College had talked me into going on a double date with he and 2 ladies from the women's dorm. He really wanted to go out with this one girl but she refused to go out with just him on a first date. She required it to be a double date. My room mate can be very convincing and he managed to talk someone who had never been on a date before to go out on this double date. That someone happened to be me. I wasn't exactly a ladies man. I had called a girl up in high school to see if she wanted to go out and get a Coke or something. The answer wasn't no, it was, I can't tonight. Nevertheless, a "no" would have been no less devastating and I tried to avoid her for the next several days because I felt embarrassed. That had been the extent of my social life at least as it pertained to the opposite sex. So after several "no way's" he finally got me to say yes. Now I was trying to get up the nerve to ask this same lady out to a concert of the St.Louis symphony. It turned out she was ok, for a girl, and I wanted to pursue a more substantial relationship with her. The snow was what pushed me over the edge. The snow might have been a sign, I thought, and if not, it still seemed like something I should do. So I met her outside her dorm and asked if I could escort her to the concert that night. She said "sure", or something like that, and the rest is history. We eventually got married and my room mate and her room mate never really hit it off. So now there is another reason to like snow. It's like they say, "just follow your snows".
