The first Snow Fall
December 1, 2025 The First Snow Fall of the Season on East Orchard Messa. My view of Posh Gardens and the Grand Mesa from the North Patio
Early this week we had our first snow fall in Palisade. It was the most snow I think we’ve had since Andy, and I moved here September 2023. I had my morning coffee on the North patio, bundled in a snuggly blanket. As I surveyed the pristine white snow that covered the garden and landscape beyond, I recalled snowy days from my youth.
I grew up in the Midwest, starting in Pennsylvania, then onto Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and back to Ohio. I even spent a couple of years in Illinois after college. My fondest winter memories are when we lived in Michigan and then later in Indiana. I was a child in Michigan. My memories there include snowbanks that crested the top of our garage, dad pulling me on a sled around the neighborhood and making snowmen with my parents. I was an only child so most of my memories from this time center around the three of us. My grandparents lived in Grand Rapids, MI. I remember one Christmas we got cross country skis. That holiday we skied around their apartment complex and then later that year we went skiing at Ranch Rodolph. I’ve no idea where that was, I just remember skiing with my parents through the forest, huge ice icicles hung from the cabins and my mom’s big fluffy white snow hat made of some kind of animal (probably rabbit) and her green puff coat. To this day, I love cross country skiing and prefer it over downhill any day!
We moved to Indiana when I was in 6th grade. My snow memories here are from my high school days. Dad managed Meshingomesia Country club in Marion, Indiana until I was a sophomore in College at Purdue University. The club is now permanently closed, but back then it was something special. My grandfather managed the same club decades before. Growing up, dad would have the pond on the golf course plowed and I along with many of my friends would go ice skating. Over the years, dad would up the game and have a fire for us so when we came off the ice we could warm up. My friends and I would also go sledding together. Not on the golf course as that would damage the greens but at other places around town.
Then in college at Purdue, I remember as a little sister at the Phi Kappa Si fraternity, I thought it would be fun to start a snowball fight. As the instigator, I convinced a couple other sister to join me and with snowballs in hand took we took on the brothers… it was fun. You could always count on snow in the Midwest. The winters were always snowy, cold and wet.
To some Colorado might still be considered a part of the Midwest, but to Andy and I it feels more like the West. Winters here are drier, not nearly as cold and with noticeably less snow which never lasts long. When we lived in Denver and our girls were young, we had a couple of memorable snowstorms. The first was when Tess now 25, was a toddler and we lived in Congress Park. It was our first house, and the snow drifts were maybe waist high. Andy shoveled a maze for Tess in the front yard she could run through… it was above her head but not dangerously so. Then the first winter in our newly built house in Stapleton, now called Central Park, we had another major snowstorm. Everything was closed and we were all snowed in. The husbands and dads of the neighborhood created a bobsled run of sorts first along our front sidewalk and then an even bigger one in the back alley. I think they loved it as much if not more than the kids did. That was probably the last real snow fall we experienced. Bella was a toddler then; she is 22 now.
This week’s snow fall doesn’t come anywhere close to what I’ve described above. We maybe had an inch, perhaps two. However, the pristine white crystals that blanketed the land, and the quietness of the early hour was peaceful. I was able to call to mind these many happy memories and reflect on how grateful I am for the life I’ve lived and for the future that is yet to come.
