When I was a little girl I used to visit my Choctaw Grandmother who lived in Oak Cliff, which is a part of the city of Dallas.  It was unbearably hot in the summer, particularly in my father’s old station wagon, which had no air.  We would leave the “white” part of town and enter into a large section of southern Dallas which was first black, then Mexican, then American Indian, then lastly whatever the most recent groups of immigrants were at the time.  I found it a fascinating study in socioeconomics, race, culture, and class division.  My greatest joy was lining up on foot to this tiny shack that had the BEST snow cones!  I used to think I was so cool ordering a “Tiger’s Blood” (really strawberry and coconut) and now I have a been a vegetarian so long I cannot even manage that.  The place was famous and the wait was long … interminably so with the Texas summer sun beating down.  Oh but the reward was sweet!  My daddy told me he’d been coming there since he was a kid.  Now I live in a part of town where there is a small snow cone stand, very similar to the one I knew in my childhood.  Only now I can drive up and I get what you see here — cherry and bubble gum.  My little one thinks she’s so cool, just as I once did, getting Tiger’s Blood.  And so the circle continues, of Texas heat and sweet snow in summer.  The British photographer and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy said:

“Occasionally I have come across a last patch of snow on top of a mountain in late May or June.  There’s something very powerful about finding snow in summer.”

Dallas may not have mountains, but there is definitely something very sweet and magical about finding snow in summer.