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“This won’t be over till 4 o’clock,” Mickey protested in dismay, checking the cable guide as the Queen of Soul began “My Country ’Tis of Thee.”

“All the snow will be melted.”

Alas, the tug of too much history in one morning. The biggest inauguration in a 9-year-old boy’s lifetime. And the first chance to use the sled he got for his fifth birthday, tags still on it.

So the minute President Obama said, “I do,” it was out the door in search of one last shaded patch of snow. This appeared to be a ribbon of packed-down ice on the tree-lined asphalt leading up to the Edwards branch library, closed for everything Tuesday but sledding.

There, Emily Wilson’s three daughters had also gone in search of snow after watching the inauguration at a nearby friend’s house. They spied the park ranger’s daughter making good use of the drive, and joined in.

“It’s been so long,” Wilson said as she watched her daughters Laurel, 12, Ashlyn, 10, and Claire, 7, steer their plastic sleds down the narrow strip over and over, trying not to hit the gravel ditch. “They were desperate for some sledding time, but by this afternoon when the sun came out, it was mostly grass.”

Which was exactly what Mickey discovered the first time he tried a running start on the slope leading down toward Price Park with his sleek, carefully waxed Snow Tiger from four Christmases ago. He hit the slope face down, hands grasping the side handles in anticipation of a speedy downhill descent and came to ... a screeching halt that catapulted him face-up into the grass.

Have you ever seen a grass angel? It’s nothing like the snow version. It just looks like a flailing, overdressed kid who can’t get up.

So after that, Mickey stuck to the beaten path, the shady, packed-down spot of snow where the girls were sledding. And after an hour of 30-degree wind on his cheeks, he was ready to go home for hot chocolate.

“Can we watch some more of the inauguration?”

Making our city proud

Speaking of getting warm, readers had a thing or two to add about the grass-roots WE! (Winter Emergency) Shelter Program in which six churches brought 100 homeless people out of the cold in the nick of time for last week’s frigid weather.

Wrote Watts Carr of a “thank you” note that appeared in this space Sunday for the effort helped in part by the emergency Operation Greensboro Cares fundraising program:

“There does seem to be a good bit of extra generosity in the air around Greensboro these days, probably elsewhere as well,” noting that Salvation Army bell ringers announced a 10 percent rise in donations this year over last.

“Maybe more of us are feeling the pain but realizing at the same time that we are still much better off than some and then doing something about it. I think it speaks volumes when churches open their doors, not just their wallets. ...”

Longtime homeless advocate Mitch McGee said he was reminded of his own heroine, Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker. And as far as I know, McGee doesn’t say that often.

“She said that churches should have a 'Christ room’ to shelter the homeless,” McGee wrote. “It appears that the churches here are doing just that.”

Mayor Yvonne Johnson, on her way last week to the inauguration, said her hometown had not surprised her: “The worst always brings out the best in people.”

This from “Making a Difference” columnist Peggy Longmire of our News & Record family: “Although I wasn’t at a shelter to help, I felt inspired yesterday to take over cookies, coffee (to the day shelter). We, who live in comfort, need to do more.”

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lorraine.ahearn@news-record.com