January 6, 1965
Jocie Brooke reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. It’s snowing! It’s snowing! No school in Hollyhill tomorrow. I shouldn’t be happy about that since we just went back to school from Christmas break last week, but when you get a snow day, you have to be happy. Aren’t you happy when you get a snow day? I love snow. I do.
In that book about Hollyhill, Summer of Joy, there are a lot of snow scenes. That sounds sort of strange for a book named Summer of something, but the story starts out before Christmas and ends in June. I guess when the summer started it was pretty joyful in Hollyhill, but the snowstorm in that book was something.
The weathermen had said flurries and so Dad and Leigh figured it would be fine for them to drive to Grundy so Dad could meet Leigh’s parents. Leigh wasn’t too excited about that. She said her parents were “different.” She made quotes around the word when she said it. They wanted her to move back home with them instead of being her own person, but Leigh says sometimes a girl has to grow up and be a person on her own and not just somebody’s daughter. Especially when she falls in love. You did know that Leigh has majorly fallen for Dad, didn’t you? Majorly.
Anyway, Leigh says her parents aren’t all that much in favor of her being crazy for Dad. He is a lot older than her since she’s not all that much older than Tabitha. But she says age doesn’t matter and maybe it doesn’t because Dad has been really happy lately. I think he liked almost getting stuck with Leigh in the snow.
Maybe you’ll think it’s fun to read a bit from that Summer of Joy book when the snow if falling fast and furious.
And then they were out the door, stepping through snow over their shoe tops to the car. The snow crunched under the car’s wheels as David backed carefully out of the driveway. He didn’t want to have to pray himself out of the ditch right in front of their house. Once they were back on the main highway, the roads were still fairly clear. There wasn’t much traffic. Just a car now and again. Some other idiot trying to escape his future in-laws’ house.
David was concentrating on driving, feeling every slip of the wheels, but at the same time, he was keenly aware of Leigh’s silence in the dark beside him. He glanced over at her, “You okay?”
“I’m sorry, David. They were even worse than I thought they would be.”
“Your mother wasn’t too happy about our news, but you know, I’m not marrying your mother. I’m marrying you and you’re happy about our news.”
“I am.” Suddenly Leigh started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” David asked.
“I don’t know. Us. Them. The snow. Everything. I always have to laugh when I leave their house. All that laughter that I couldn’t spill there gets piled up inside me and I have to let it out.”
And so they laughed and prayed their way through the snow back to Hollyhill.
Hope you liked reading that. Lots more happened during that snowstorm in Hollyhill. Dad had some surprises when he got home. We all did – thanks to Zella’s meddling. You won’t believe what Zella did. Well, maybe you will. After all, we’re talking about Zella now.
Pretty soon Summer of Joy (March) will be back on the shelves and you will have a chance to read all about that snow storm and those surprises.