'Lawn As White As Driven Snow'

Houston’s terrain is geometrically flat, which is why most houses have no basements. From the warmth of my living room I watched a neighborhood kid try to defy gravity, seated on a plastic sled in the middle of the ice-covered street, holding the reins and achieving minimal locomotion with leg-and-butt power. This went on for thirty minutes. Native Texans have little understanding of snow, ice, a low temperature of 23°F and inertia. A native Northerner can feel quite pleased with himself.

 

In Ohio, we took sledding seriously. It was an all-day affair. Plenty of steep hills were available, one of which ended in a rock-filled creek. The trick was to steer to the right at the last moment to avoid what’s known as an “Ethan Frome.” In preparation for sledding, we had hauled buckets of creek water up the hill and poured them on the incline. The water froze and minimized inertia.

 

Slowly over the decades The Winter’s Tale has become one of my favorites among the plays, largely for the late, dense language Shakespeare had achieved. These lines are from Autoclytus’ song in Act IV, Scene 4:

 

“Lawn as white as driven snow,

Cypress black as e’er was crow,

Gloves as sweet as damask roses,

Masks for faces and for noses,

Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,

Perfume for a lady’s chamber,

Golden coifs and stomachers

For my lads to give their dears,

Pins and poking-sticks of steel,

What maids lack from head to heel . . .”

 

The kid gave up sledding and built a three-tier, one-armed snowman in the circle at the end of our cul de sac, and next to it a section of wall made with snow bricks. The flag says “STH Eagles,” referring to the Saint Thomas High School Eagles. The snow is laced with leaves and sticks, a side effect of having to work with shallow snow. I remember that offending my aesthetic sense when I was a kid.