The Snow, a Coat, and a Secret

I decided to write this post because I’ve seen so many people posting memories that are related to snow.  Plus I was chatting with my sister Jamie earlier in the week and we exchanged copies of photos from the Big Snow Event in Jennings, Louisiana, on January 11, 1973.  I just made up that name.  Nobody called it the Big Snow Event.  There was barely enough snow to make a small snowman.  It was Jennings, Louisiana, and it was the first time I remember having snow there.  We had been living at 758 Lucy Street for less than 10 years, so it was due for a snow.  We don’t get snow that often and it’s usually not very much.  But that doesn’t stop kids from being excited about it when it does fall!

We took quite a few photos of us kids in the snow.  I think it was my mom who took the photos.  I’m pretty sure the date is correct, but I’m kinda doubtful.  For some reason I was thinking Rob had come home from college, but he didn’t graduate from Jennings High School until May of 1973.  In the photo is Karen, Jamie, me (Van), Al, and Rob Landry.  I’m pretty sure it was a school day, and we were let out of school because of all of the snow!

The other thing about this photo is that it’s the last photo I have of that big coat I’m wearing.  It was a reversible coat.  The side you see here is the shiny, coppery side that was good at blocking the wind.  On the other side was nice, thick brown fur.  It wasn’t real fur.  We didn’t have fancy stuff like that.  In fact it was handed down to me from Al.  That’s what happens when you’re the third of three boys – you get hand me down clothes.  I survived it.

I hinted at a secret, so I suppose I will have to reveal it.  It’s not really anything big.  It kinda makes me laugh.  It has to do with the coat.   I was in junior high school at Northside.  Anybody who’s lived in southern Louisiana knows that a cold morning can turn into a warm afternoon fairly quickly.  That’s what happened one day at school.  I was wearing this big coat when we went out for recess after lunch.  It wasn’t long before I started to get warm, so I took the coat off and threw it to the side so I could continue what I was doing.  When the bell rang, I didn’t have a thought for that big coat and went inside with everyone.

I realized a few days later that the coat was missing, but I couldn’t find it anywhere at school.  Then one day it turned up and it had been rained on.  I could see the fur inside and it looked like a mangy dog or something.  I seem to recall someone asking if it was mine.  I just shook my head no.  I turned my back on that poor coat after it kept me so warm in the snow!  I kinda felt bad about that.  Then when my mom asked me what had happened to my coat, I claimed ignorance!  For some reason I’ve never told many people this story, so let’s just keep it as our little secret.  You can go ahead and tell it to one or two of your closest friends if you like.

Before I go, I thought I’d share another photo.  This is a photo Jamie sent me the other day.  You can see the snowman that I mentioned earlier in the post.  She reminded me that we had cheated a little bit when we made the biggest part of the snowman.  There wasn’t much snow, so we formed that part around our basketball!  What’s funny is that it’s still a tiny little snowman.  Yes, he’s the little white man standing in the middle of the photo with the red, white, and blue bandana on his head.  That was Rob’s donation, because you can see he had that on his head in the first photo.  Thanks for the photo, Jamie!  I had forgotten about how cute that little snowman was.