Snowy March in New York

CEBU, Philippines - I was in New York mid March, hoping to catch the nip of early spring and what’s left of the snow the previous winter. I knew that the East Coast had a terrible winter with a couple of feet high snow banks even in Manhattan. What I did not expect was the almost daily snowfall in New Jersey where I stayed with my cousins Malyn (Angbetic) & Casey Tanseco in Piscataway , Middlesex. Some parts of NJ even had hail the size of which was capable of car damage! By the time I left for home on March 29, snow was still forecasted the next day. Was it ever spring at all? ( Spring officially starts on March 20.) Been monitoring the weather forecast in the East Coast, they are still in the low 20s until now with snowdrifts (and am sure sleet with the rains).

I was never in the East Coast for the autumn or winter season. I know the harshness of the seasons in these parts of the U.S. One summer in 1996, I stayed for a week in Manhattan. I almost fainted from the heat! I was glad to move on to West Virginia for a cousin’s wedding. The mountainous terrain there made for a more tolerable although still dry summer heat. No place like the Philippines, where the humidity factor maybe uncomfortable, but so great for one’s complexion.

Highlight of my recent trip was catching St. Patrick’s Day parade on 5th Ave. – the biggest in the U.S. — with a newcomer in town, Lillian Dumalos. She just migrated to NYC with her family and it was her first St. Patrick’s. She wasn’t aware of the big to-do until I pulled her towards the parade venue. St. Patrick is the patron saint of New York; thus, the grand St. Patrick’s Cathedral – a landmark.

What is New York without the statue of Miss Liberty? So off I went on a river cruise with my ex-Cebu Plaza colleagues one morning. And of course, Broadway! I caught Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in “Driving Miss Daisy.” That show alone compensated for my trip to the Big Apple. I even got to celebrate my birthday twice – with my relatives and with my ex-Cebu Plaza colleagues.

So the snowy chill was not too bad, after all, if you have friends and relatives to keep you warm with their pampering and truly infectious Cebuano humor.