By Rosie Moore

This is the last column I will write about the weather–I promise. Someone told me to move back up to Pennsylvania and take this snow with me–ha! ha! I wish I could, in a way, because I have children and grandchildren up there plus I have relatives in Florida so I’m stuck here in the middle and I guess I’ll stay here.

I saw on TV that businesses are really hurting, plus many people are without power and, of course, school children are enjoying their winter vacation. But I had to think, if people down here would do what we do up North, there wouldn’t be as many problems. The first thing we do in a snowstorm is plow the back roads before the main roads. They figure that the main roads would clear up by the traffic faster than the back roads. Then everyone would put chains on the tires and go their way–to the stores, to church, etc. Schools would not close down unless it’s a really big blizzard. Life would slow down but it wouldn’t STOP altogether. But perhaps chains are not a good idea for today’s modern cars, I don’t know.

Now I realize that there have been snowstorms in Tennessee since the 1800s, I believe, but the only thing different about the storms down here is they don’t last very long, at the most just a day or two. This time it caught us unawares, sticking around for two weeks, a snowy night here and a snowy day there, and, to add insult to injury, it became icy then snowed on top of that.

Be that as it may, the road crews and electricians who worked so hard to bring things back to normal have to be commended. They worked hard, are continuously working and where would we be without them? We are fortunate that we don’t have a foot of snow on our cars or on the side of the streets such as Boston and other northern cities do. And many thanks to the people who helped relatives, friends, and the elderly through this wintry time.

It  doesn’t matter if it snows one inch or ten inches, in its wondrous beauty it is also dangerous. Don’t drive for the fun of it, unless it’s absolutely necessary.

So, cheer up, we don’t have it so bad. Make some snow ice cream!  Have a party! Celebrate, because spring is just around the corner!

Thought for the day: Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.  Vesta M. Kelly

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