When we finally opened the door and dove out into the snow, there was sort of an understood agenda of activities. First, build a snow man for the youngest to enjoy. Second, throw snow or snow balls at each other and try to bury each other in the snow. (That may have come first). Then right after the plow trucks came through to clear the streets, the neighborhood boys would head off to go sledding. We didn't have many hills or mountains nearby, so we used the snow banks on the side of the road to launch us down steep inclines and around curves (with one or two of us watching out for cars!). If you were lucky, you had an "American Flyer" and could actually steer around a curve (but others delighted in merely crashing into the snow banks!).

After all that, it was time for a lunch break. Boy, did Campbell's vegetable alphabet soup hit the spot then! (By the way, Campbell's actually had a factory in my hometown because of our famous Jersey tomatoes). But the main event was still to come -- fort building and all-out snowball warfare!

These snow days surely were wonderful times, but as I grew into my teenage years, the magic of all that seemed to vanish. There was too much snow to have to shovel off the sidewalk and driveway. (Which now, since I was the oldest son, became my job and it took some elbow grease because no one had riding blowers back then!). The beautiful, fresh snow seemed to devolve into disgusting, black slush in no time. And it was cold outside (which, when I was no longer playing, I remembered I didn't like).

That's why, as I got older, I preferred to stay inside -- particularly on January 1 once our family got a color TV. (Remember, once upon a time, when there were only 3 stations, all in black and white?). The reason to stay in and watch TV was the Rose Bowl parade and game, broadcast from sunny Southern California! I remember thinking (and may have even asked my parents one time). "Why can't we live there?" (To which I was immediately responded to with a blunt "NO!"). My memories of watching that warm weather parade and game, while it was cold and gray outside, were literally my motivator to eventually come out to California, where as it turns out I formed my own Law Firm and some 38 years later, am here writing this article to you today!