As the dusting of snow quickly melted Sunday morning, I thought of how disappointed a little boy in Mocksville with his new sled must have been.

His daddy was in front of me in line at the hardware and feed store on Friday as the weather forecast called for one to four inches of snow. The orange plastic slider was as long as the little boy was tall.

I bought grass seed. The little boy got a sled.

He was ready for action, but the weather failed to cooperate.

We got just a dusting that melted on contact with the ground. The only accumulation was on my deck furniture.

The snow started at 8 a.m. and continued for an hour without much determination. By 11 a.m. there was no evidence that it had snowed.

There wasn’t enough snow for a snowball much less a hillside for sledding.

The little boy’s untested sled will have to wait.

Also on Friday, an elderly woman at the Post Office confided in me about the snow prediction: “I don’t believe it.”

She was right.

• • • • •

Boys and girls have their toy catalogs that arrive in November, prompting their Christmas lists to Santa Claus.

My own wish book arrived last week — the annual iris catalog. It’s 100 pages of bliss and beauty packaged to make me want one of everything.

But I was slapped to reality by the prices. The magazine’s front cover iris is a princely $55 — out of my league.

I’m trying to summon the courage to just look at the photos this year without buying.

• • • • •

A birthday is looming next month, and already I feel like I’m slipping ever closer to the Old Timer category. Geezerhood.

I often drive below the speed limit, especially on Sunday afternoons when there’s no hurry. Going home the other day, the traffic was piled up behind me, and cars zoomed past when I edged over to the exit lane.

People in Advance drive much too fast. They could slow down and not crowd us old drivers.

People who can’t remember my name refer to me as “Young Man.”

I know what they mean: Old Man.

You don’t live this long without learning a few things.

• • • • •

My second born, who once shunned sports, has talked me into filling out a NCAA tournament bracket for the first time.  He’s turned it into a family competition.

I was amazed how easy it was clicking on the teams I predicted to win.

Within minutes, I put Duke, Carolina, Kansas and Notre Dame in the Final Four with Carolina beating Duke in the final game.

My predictions may reflect an in-state prejudice more than common sense. We’ll see.

• • • • •

For the second time in a month, an accident on Interstate 40 at the Yadkin River tied up traffic Friday. For nearly 10 miles, cars and tractor trailer rigs backed up on the eastbound lane of I-40, spilling over onto U.S. 158 and N.C. 801 and Farmington Road as motorists tried to get around the crash on the river bridge.

It’s amazing how much traffic zooms by on the interstate in a day. There’s no reason to think about it until there’s a paralyzing crash. Then we have plenty of time to consider it as we sit and sit and sit.

— Dwight Sparks