Editor, Gazette-Journal:

It is Sunday, 31 January. I am sitting here on the seventh floor of my apartment, looking out the window at the falling snow, and seeing very little traffic on North Fairfax Street. I have been in many places where there is snow. I still hate it.

My mother used to say, when I was growing up in Mathews County, “It is pretty coming down, but it is a mess cleaning up.”

I have seen snow in upstate New York where I took my Air Force basic training, from November 1952 until February 1953, then was sent on to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for 15 months … more snow!

From Cheyenne, I was sent to Tokyo, Japan, where there was snow in the winters. I have always felt that the most beautiful place in winter was with snow in Tokyo, and in the distance to see snow-topped Mt. Fuji which I once tried to climb with a group of WACs (Army women) and one sole WAVES (Navy woman). I gave up, halfway up.

The only other place I was ever in was in the Philippines, and there were tw...