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Let It Snow
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| I'm pretty much convinced
that our weather isn't what it used to be. Looking out my window on
Thursday morning, snow flurries swirled all around. It seems nowadays
that's all we have ... just flurries. No accumulation to amount of
anything anymore. But it didn't used to be that way. I can remember when I
was in grade school, it was nothing unusual for school to be closed for
weeks in a row because of snow. Boy, did we love it! Kids today don't have
that luxury since we hardly ever have a really good snowfall anymore. In fact, I can't remember a winter, other than the one in 1977, when we had a lot of snow. That year it started in January and continued on through March, one big snow right after another. I absolutely hated snow then. Now I begin every winter hoping we'll have at least one good snow. And by way of explanation as to my about-face concerning snow, only folks who live out in the country can relate to the problems and aggravation snow can bring. In the '70's, four wheel drives had not really caught on yet which made traveling country roads very hazardous in just an ordinary vehicle. When we lived in the country, our house was at the very end of a long, country lane that tended to always have deep snow drifts. Sometimes it was nearly impossible to get through. That was especially true in the winter of 1977. We completely buried a car in a snow drift one cold, snowy morning that year. Trying to make our way back to the house on foot was no easy matter either, especially with three kids in tow. The fiercely blowing wind just about froze us to death and nearly blew us away at the same time. I believe it was that same winter that Dale Hollow Lake froze over, a first in it's history as far as I know. After that particular winter, I was terrified of trying to drive into work by myself when it snowed, making it necessary to ride into town with my husband who was always the first to cut a trail in a snowfall. That also meant I had to leave home sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m. when it snowed. That made for some extremely long days, only to return home sometimes as late as 6:30 that night due to my husband's work schedule, and then start the same process all over the next day. Snow was definitely something I did not want to have to contend with at all following the winter of 1977. But a winter or two later, my attitude about snow did improve somewhat with the purchase of a four wheel drive Subaru. That little car could climb a light pole! It was because of that car that I gradually built up the confidence needed to drive in the snow. I no longer had to rise long before the sun did in order to be at work. And should it begin to snow during the day while at work, never fear, my trusty little, white Subaru awaited. This little car was so good at getting around in the snow, it created the illusion that there was no snow on the ground at all. It was my all time favorite vehicle. I still miss having that car. But with moving to town many years ago, and practically living on the courthouse square, the big, heavy snows we used to have are just a memory. For a while the morning the flurries began, I thought just maybe there might just be a possibility of at least some significant accumulation, but it wasn't to be. Surely the sight of the entire landscape under a snowy white blanket of freshly fallen snow won't continue to be just captured in photographs of past winters. But then maybe all those years of sheer panic at the sight of a snowflake might just have jinxed the entire weather system around here. I really don’t believe that the real reason, especially when we hear about the terrible effects of global warming. But at the same time, it brings to my mind that old saying, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it! See where wishing I’d never see another snowflake got me???
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