longing to be up north
may your days be merry and bright
irving berlin wrote the song “white christmas” for holiday inn (1942). the song is explicitly set in beverly hills, although the opening lines are usually cut. they go:
The sun is shining, the grass is green,
The orange and palm trees sway.
There's never been such a day
in Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it's December the twenty-fourth,—
And I am longing to be up North—
(odd punctuation not mine)
six years later, it did snow in los angeles, though it was late for christmas: snow fell on january 9 and 10, 1949. according to rare historical photos, bing crosby—the most famous performer of the song—was in castroville (which is up north near monterey) and his car froze.
we haven’t had snow in los angeles since, although we can often see it on the san gabriel barrier mountains. we lost julian sands on mount baldy two years ago in a snowstorm. a few years before that, we took the boys up to see snow near crystal lake (not that one).
i grew up in new york, so snow was a regular occurrence, in winter but sometimes in fall and spring, too. i spent half of my childhood in the city and half up in the hudson valley, and the experience of snow was vastly different between the two—in the city, it quickly turned to slush, while upstate it often accumulated enough to blot out the world, and one year my stepfather built an igloo right in the front yard.
i say the city snow quickly turned to slush, but it should be clarified that the first snow never seemed to do that. oh, it probably did, but i don’t remember it. the first snow in new york city is a magical event.
tonight we will have christmas eve pizza, and then tomorrow is both christmas and (after sunset) the first night of hanukkah. we will start the day with bagels and end it with latke.
chag sameach, everyone. (don’t war on christmas me. that’s hebrew for happy holiday.)