An Occurrence Extraordinary 12/6/2020

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

When the temperatures drop below freezing or quite frankly gets even close to it, in these parts that garners quite the mixed bag of emotion.  In the south weather extremes are most assuredly not unheard of.  We are subjected to tornadoes frequently. The odd hurricane or tropical storm isn’t out of the question with our proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.  Those beloved warm waters have been known to brew up many a storm of a very malicious nature.  If you wanted to get right down to it, the southern summer is its own form of extremity with a downright spiteful combination of heat and humidity that has to be experienced for one to truly grasp the level of loathing that it deserves.  However, when we in the south get cold (which we often don’t get to truly do since often our winter gives us rather cool at best) our reactions tends to be very, shall we say, severe–to use applicable weather terminology.  If and when we do achieve legitimate cold here, we respond I suppose in the ways most people do toward things to which they are unaccustomed.  And by legitimate cold I mean temperatures at or below freezing which I do realize would make people from reaches farther north snort with derision at being called cold but it is the hand that we are dealt here. And if by some mysterious and magical chance this cold weather brings us (in actuality or even in chance) frozen precipitation, especially of the white and fluffy kind (because let’s face it everyone’s feelings about the other form being sleet are all pretty universally negative) then the majority of us here tend to ever so slightly lose our minds.

When it comes to snow the feelings are very mixed I admit. I know those that think that snow is probably one of the most majestically beautiful and wondrous things that the sky could produce. I tend to lean to this lot in my opinions as well. You just cannot beat for sheer beauty a landscape draped in sparkling, clean white.  Even the most unappealing setting once it is blanketed in white velvet robes becomes something other worldly. You could very literally take a pile of refuse and cover it in a few inches of snow and it no longer matters what it is in fact a pile of, it could be absolutely anything, but whatever that mound is, it glitters and is strikingly lovely. It is a virtual 180 of aesthetics simply by adding a frosting.  Though when I word it like that, I suppose most things are improved by frosting, or if you call it icing the same principle applies.  However, there are those whose strong feelings about snow are not ones of glee and giddiness but tend to fall somewhere more on the scale of emotion in between horror and disgust. There are those who despise the cold and putting it in solid form and strewing about all exposed surfaces is most assuredly not their idea of a wonderland. Most will still say it is nice to look at but in photographic form which even then will still often make them shiver and make comments regarding how cold it looks.  But regardless of opinions on the stuff, in the south we do not really know what to do with ourselves when faced with it.

Give us snow or the mere mention of it as a possibility and we do several things. Most infamously and probably hilariously, we panic buy bread and milk. Yes, they are very perishable so I suppose having them is handy but if stranded in the icy grip of a blizzard of an inch or two and the world shuts down once said items have perished, what then? (Those not from here probably assume that was tongue in cheek when I said inches but we all know that we have in fact ground to a halt for what a large portion of the world would call an unremarkable dusting.) But, we will have had our milk sandwiches early on in the great white wasteland I suppose and then attempt to suffer along on canned beans perhaps until the inevitable warmth returns. 

We also certainly can’t drive in any amount of snow either but I call that a formidable cocktail of the fact that neither we nor local authorities are really equipped for addressing snowy roads and we are so excited (or appalled depending on who you ask) to see snow when it occurs that our usually skilled driving abilities go to pot.  This is a potent mixture indeed. As a matter of fact in the past few days I got to see my Facebook feed explode because there were a few flurries spotted around Alabama, and not just the more northern areas where it might be ever so slightly more likely. You would have thought we were all bearing witness to some divine portent of the heavens, which I suppose would similarly merit a variety of strong yet mixed response.

One thing that I can say for certain about snow is that, for the vast majority, it induces sheer joy in children. This fact alone will allow some of the less thrilled adult population, be they parent or grand, look upon the flurries with something of a fondness, possibly a wearied version of it since it could mean they must be subjected to time out in said chilly circumstances but it is fondness just the same.  Whether the child be thrilled at the prospect of the drudgery of school being forgone or simply at the thought of all the new play options that are born of the drifts, the excitement is real and palpable. People of any age must admit the world does take on something of a magical ambience in snow.  With every tree branch sparkling and every blade of grass crystalized it does seem entirely possible that the whole of the outdoors is under an enchantment waiting to be explored. I still feel this way when looking at wintery scenery and I am very certainly far from childhood. 

So, let it be known that my daughter has made the declaration that she hopes it snows seven days.  While I appreciate her recognition of easily calculated time frames I grasp that if it did in fact snow here for 7 days the whole of life would shut down in ways not seen since the Blizzard of ’93.  Perhaps a 30 minute to one hour dusting on each day of a week might not end the world. All I know is we had all better hope that she doesn’t pray for it to happen.  I prayed for snow once when I was about 7 or so and we had snow the next morning and that was in April.  Childlike faith can pull off amazing things.  Who knows?  Perhaps our winter wonderland will be walkable sooner than we think?  I will let you know if she starts petitioning Heaven so you can pick up some bread and milk, just in case.