Snow snobbery in the Big Apple

Normally the stereotype is that New Yorkers are cynical and tough, while Coloradans (where I’m from) are wholesome and softhearted.

Well, come visit New York City when the newscasters are predicting a snow storm. It’s not just a snowfall but a snow storm; then they called it a blizzard. And not just a blizzard, but an epic blizzard. And it’s not even just an epic blizzard, but a record-breaking blizzard. Historic.

Before even one snowflake appears, the hysteria spreads as quickly as Central Park getting blanketed in white in a real blizzard. The supermarkets are packed. The shelves are emptied. The line to the cashier snakes to the back of the store.

This, for one day of snow. In January.

That’s what happens in winter, it snows. But these days in New York it’s treated as a novelty. For a second, I thought I was back in Israel, where snowfalls genuinely are a novelty, so that when word of snow arrives preparations go into high gear and it feels like a special holiday is knocking at the door.

I felt like a dissociated elitist Coloradan, watching my New York neighbors going nuts, chuckling to myself. At daybreak Saturday morning I could see the speed of the snow swirling by the light of the street lamps. It sure was coming down fast. This was no gentle Colorado snowfall. Oh, but how cozy it all was.

Nothing beats a good Shabbat snowstorm. Imposed indoor coziness in the snow, imposed snow playing, imposed drinking hot chocolate with not much else to do — does it get any better than that? It may not be my beloved Rockies, but Central Park ain’t half bad in the snow. The streets were empty. Barely a soul could be seen.

Later, when I walked to synagogue, normally busy Manhattan streets, teeming with traffic and people, were empty. I walked down the middle of the street without a care in the world. How cool is that? In the snow, the busiest streets and neighborhoods in a city like New York suddenly feel transformed into the intimacy of a small village.

Anyone in your path, people who usually may be aloof or detached, suddenly are locking eyes with strangers, smiling, friendly and warm. All that freezing weather brings out human warmth in spades.