Anticipation
This week in Park City, we bask in the warm, sunny days of a prolonged Indian summer. Though we had a wake-up call from this reverie with snow in the mountains a few weekends ago, the warm streak must be Mother Nature's way of giving us a free "last chance" to prepare for winter: store the lawnmower, separate the irises, pull the last of the carrots from the garden, get the skis tuned and make the kids clean up dog poop in the backyard before the ground freezes.
Most locals are starting to jones for cooler weather, though, and you can feel the vibe all over town. Jans Winter Welcome, a fundraiser for the Winter Sports Alliance (in its 28th year) was held Saturday night, with an impressive display of sparkly snowflake decorations and twinkly white lights to set the winter mood. Our community's young winter athletes - ice skaters, skiers, snowboarders, lugers, jumpers and more, were in attendance, walking guests down the red carpet entrance (a very nice touch and reminded people why they were spending $250 a ticket: for the KIDS). Deer Valley Resort's 80-year old Ambassador of Skiing and pioneer in the ski industry at large, Stein Eriksen, was honored at the event. Watching footage of him in his youth, flipping and jumping and carving down the slopes with his signature smooth style, is always magically inspiring. With every word, gesture and the sparkle in his eye, Stein imparts enthusiasm for winter like no other.
Then the Eccles Center hosted the latest Warren Miller ski flick - always an adrenaline-charged kick-off to ski season. Everyone wears their ski hats to the theater, whoops and hollers at the amazing footage, cheers when the Utah locals and ski resorts are featured and feverishly fills out their raffle tickets to win ski passes, skis, T-shirts and more.
And last but not least, the number one indicator of impending snow in Park City? The arrival of Halloween. I've celebrated Halloween in this town for 21 years, and I swear it's snowed on more than half of them. Some years, the ski resorts are even open by Halloween. I've worn Sorels with my witch gowns, and my boys have worn double layers of long underwear beneath their Batman, Superman and Winnie the Pooh costumes. The cardboard box costumes - a robot - a French fry - dissolved into pulpy messes of wet paper and slush. Some years we had to trick-or-treat from the car because the snow was too deep for the kids to navigate, or the roads too icy to walk in Spiderman slippers.
So I'm holding out for my favorite event of the entire year: Halloween on Main Street. From 3 - 5 p.m. each Halloween, Main Street is closed to vehicular traffic and hundreds of kids and their parents take to the streets, trick-or-treating at our generous Main Street merchants' doors. This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for good old free Park City fun. Everyone gets into the act, with parents in costumes as well-thought-out as their kids'. Hint: Most moms and dads carry warming beverages (in one way or another) in plastic coffee mugs, socializing up a storm with old friends. Aside from seeing hundreds of cute kids in their costumes - the infants in pea pod suits; the fairy princesses; the gory teenage boy bloody stuff - you can't miss the doggie parade, at 5 p.m. Since Park City is truly "Bark City," our canine companions show up in all array of festivity - from the wiener dogs in wiener costumes replete with buns, mustard and onion, to our golden retrievers in Superman capes and more.
So I'll ask the snow dancers to wait just a few more days. Let us have Halloween without freezing our extremities or dissolving our costumes, and then, I say bring on the snow!
Word of the week:
(I am an editor, after all)
Supplied as one definition of "jack o' lantern":
ig·nis fat·u·us : 1 : a light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground and is often attributable to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter 2 : a deceptive goal or hope
Also: a lantern made of a pumpkin cut to look like a human face ; or a large orangish gill fungus that is poisonous and luminescent.
Etymology: Medieval Latin, literally, "foolish fire"
- Merriam Webster online
What I Left Out:
- The voluminous amount of cleavage at Jans Winter Welcome on Saturday night.
- The number of Deer Valley chocolate truffles said writer consumed at Jans Winter Welcome Saturday night. Ahem.
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Reader Comments:
Your blogs are fantastic! Here in CT, the cold wind has blown in just in time for Halloween. The leaves have fallen, the pumpkins are lit and I can almost taste my first Reeses Peanut Butter cup. I will be trick or treating with one mermaid and one New York City Rockette (a tribute to her great grandfather who was President of Radio City Music Hall from 1966 to 1973).
But Main Street in Park City sounds pretty tempting.. maybe next year we check out Halloween in Park City??!!