Dashing Through the Snow

As a kid, I had a sense that there was something wrong about winter. My family moved to Houston from Louisiana when I was five years old. During my childhood in Houston, we had precisely one snowy day. I was in second grade when it snowed—it managed to cover the entire Frostwood Elementary schoolyard with a layer of snow maybe an inch deep. It was a lot of work, but I eventually made a snow-man out of this dusting. But even then. my 7 year old mind knew that this didn’t match what culture was telling me about winter. TV, movies, comics, advertisements despicted n America blanketed in a beautiful coating of snow. I knew that different parts of the country were different for some reason. It felt unfair.

When I was in 2nd grade, the most authoritative piece of pop culture that I consumed was Peanuts, the hugely popular comic strip by Charles Schulz. In retrospect, it feels like Schulz was teaching us kids how to be normal—and normal apparently included snow (and winter things, like hockey, sleds, skating, etc. )

In that period of time, the early 70s, there was a monoculture. This meant for kids growing up in Houston, the whole culture on which we were raised was telling us that Christmastime should be a winter wonderland of snow and fun. Now it seems like culture can be focused more narrowly. Kids in Houston should be able to see their own experience reflected in their Tik Toks and so on—you know, that stuff kids like. Then yesterday, walking in my nighborhood, I came across this.

The Midtown TIRZ (a quasi governmental taxing authority in this neighborhood) decorated the letters of their big Midtown sign with winter wonderland images. We know that Houston will never look like a Christmas postcard, and if we do get snow, it could be a disaster that kills hundred of Texans.

But despite the fact that Charles Schulz deceived me about the joys of winter, The Great God Pan is Dead wishes you a lovely Christmas. And for all of you readers who have to dig your way from your front door to the garage, who find yourselves skidding on black ice, I envy you lucky bastards!

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