Late-year snow creates perfect storm of memories

in South Sound. On Dec. 22. And it's still falling.

Could it be a white Christmas this year?

All this weather reminds me of my first South Sound holiday season — way back in 1996.

I was the new guy in The Olympian's newsroom, so I got to cover what passed for news on a balmy Christmas Day.

Parents watched their kids play on the slides at Capitol Lake, cyclists pedaled by in shorts and I watched cutthroat trout rise to blue wing olive mayflies on our own Deschutes River.

It was the warmest Christmas since I moved to the Northwest in 1986.

But the weather report was ominous, and there was a steely tint to the western sky.

On the night of Dec. 26 — even as people packed stores for after-Christmas sales — freezing rain started to coat everything.

Alder trees bowed under an ever-growing layer of ice in my neighborhood. I heard cracking booms — like the report of a 12-gauge shotgun — as the trees broke at the trunks.

Strobe flashes of electricity — they looked like lightning — lit the dark sky in my Tumwater Hill neighborhood as power lines fell and transformers blew. The acrid scent of ozone filled the cold air.

I woke up at dawn and looked out the window.

The world was gleaming in ice — and falling apart.

I headed to the newsroom and didn't really stop working until Jan. 2.

During the next week, South Sound endured an ice storm, snow, rain — which soaked snow-burdened roofs at marinas and caused boathouses to collapse onto yachts.

Most people didn't have electricity.

Power crews got a lot of people reconnected — and then a big wind storm blew into town and knocked down even more lines. I'm pretty sure it snowed and rained again — but it all ran together in my mind.

The kids didn't seem to mind all the weather chaos. They went about the important business of wringing out as much fun as possible from the snow and ice.

Every hill was a sledder's delight. Kids slid on cardboard ice surfboards — and savored parents hanging around the house and an extra-long winter vacation.

We adults complained and worried and resented neighbors that had power — and television and twinkling Christmas lights.

We wanted showers and lights and meals cooked in a real oven and college football bowl games on comfortably glowing televisions.

Instead, we had beanie weenie cooked on the living room woodstove, chilly feet and closed coffee shops.

We wanted nature to go away — like a beloved relative who has outstayed their holiday welcome — and leave us alone.

Instead, nature gave us beauty and trouble and hung around for a while.

Sooner or later, all this snow will melt away, and we journalists will eventually remind everyone of the Great Christmas Blizzard of '08.

Take a few photos — you'll be glad you did.

Mount St. Helens

If you're one of the lucky ones still savoring electrical power, switch on the Internet and check out a nice holiday gift from the folks at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

Video clips at www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/video/immersive-media/vid1.shtml take visitors on a 360-degree flight around our favorite blown-up volcano.

It's very, very cool — and free!

And, if you're waiting for power, why not head outside and find some cool stuff on your own?

Take the kids sledding — keep them off the streets — make a snow fort, fill up a bird feeder and make a fire when you get home.

The kids will remember all this a lot longer than the presents they'll open later this week.

After all, how many of you still cherish the Gigapets, Pokemon cards and Gameboys from the Great Christmas Ice Storm of 1996?

Chester Allen can be reached at callen@theolympian.com or 360-754-4226