Snow Birds

When I was young kid, doing my homework at the kitchen table on cold winter nights, I sometimes heard my folks talk about snow birds. Once in a while, I even wondered what a snow bird was like. Were they tiny like a canary or big like a hawk? I assumed they were white, or else why would they be called snow birds? If they were known in the middle of the US, did they spend the summer in Canada, which I assumed had snow all year around. (There's so much more they could teach in geography classes!) I even wondered why I never saw one, no matter how hard I watched for them during the winter.

Eventually, as I grew up, I forgot all about those elusive snow birds.

About a decade ago, I met a man, well past retirement age, who was working full time. I knew what his career had been, and learned that he had retired, but now was back again, 'part-time'. Eventually, I asked him how he could be working part time when he was there 40 hours a week. "My wife and I are snow birds. I only work half a year, during the summer." He went on to explain that early in October, they went to Arizona, and they came back late in March.

I finally have my explanation of a snow bird. Not a creature that comes with the snow, but one that heads away to avoid it. And now that winter has definitely arrived to the midwest, I wish I could be one of those snow birds. Do you suppose if I tried real hard, I could grow feathers?