Just as I was about to get used to 60 degree days in January, the weather turns freezing. I hear that it is supposed to get into the low 20s or teens tonight.
Today we didn’t make it up to 30 degrees, and we had snow on the ground for the first time this winter. I can easily remember years when snow fell in October, and when we had several good snows before Christmas. I guess those who were dreaming of a white Christmas were disappointed in this winter.
For myself, I am always wishing that fall would last longer than it normally does, so for the most part I got my wish this year. Although, I’m kind of glad we have winter, this year as it turns cold, I am still wishing that fall temperatures could last a little longer. I have had more time to do some things I wanted to accomplish on the farm before winter, but I still don’t have it all done. I need some more days without the freezing cold and wind. I guess we are never quite satisfied with our winter weather.
Winters in Arkansas can vary amazingly from year to year. This winter seems to support my theory that in Arkansas we don’t have much normal weather, we just have a lot of unusual weather and weird weather! Some years we never get down to 0 on the thermometer; other years we may go down below 0 and stay there for a month. As I remember the winter of 1983, we had that enduring 0 cold. The water ponds were covered with two feetof ice, and the cattlemen and dairy farmers had to chop ice to water their livestock. We came home from Searcy during that cold spell, for an after Christmas visit with the grandparents in Pea Ridge. I was driving Ray Patterson’s ’59 Chevy pickup, with a load of wood on board, and as I turned onto Weston Street from Arkansas Highway 72, I misjudged how slick the ice was on the corner.
Even though I was moving at only about 10 miles per hour, I slid into the ditch at the south end of Weston Street. Luckily, Weston Street is level, and the ditch then was not that deep, so I got moving again and was able to pull out of the ditch without help.
Today, Weston Street has no ditch at that place, so I guess if I did that maneuver again, I might bounce over the curb and hit the fence!
I noted today, that on television, some of the folks in Chicago were pleased to see a little winter snow. Others were just dreading the cold and treacherous roads. I guess many of us have mixed feelings about snow and winter.
My wife Nancy loves the snow, except for the cold, the wind, the ice and the mud that go with it. Snow does have a way of making the warm house feel doubly nice and comfortable, and sitting by a warm fire is doubly nice when the winter wind is driving the snowfall outside.
I think there really are some things to like about snow. A snowy landscape is far more interesting than the dreary, gray barrenness of a snowless season. The sight of falling snow can be fascinating as one watches the shifting patterns of snowflakes flying in thewind. Even the sound of snow and wind against the windows is an interesting bit of variety from the sameness of every day. Of course, it sounds lots better if you are inside and comfortable. The sound of the snow is not quite so nice if the wind is driving it into your face as you put out hay for the cattle. Still, if one is snugly dressed, even the snow is an interesting variation to the ordinariness of a gray day.
The patterns of a snowfall make for interesting natural art. I know that not all aspects of winter are nice and quaint like the old Currier and Ives, New England snow scenes, but there is a certain delight to the patterns of the snowdrifts on the hills and fields, to the clusters of snow clinging to trees and bushes, to sparkling icicles growing like stalactites from roof edges and to clouds of steampuffing from the nostrils of the cattle. On a quiet day, I hear the crack of the ice in the trees as their branches sway in the wind, and chunks of ice come crashing to the frozen ground.
Winter’s cold makes me reminisce about long johns, ear flaps and muffs, gloves and mittens, the feather bed at Grandma’s house, about crawling under a cozy stack of quilts and blankets for a long winter’s night and of a heated brick wrapped in a towel and placed at the foot of the bed to warm the feet. In it’s own weird way, winter can be kind of nice.
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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history.
He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Community, Pages 5 on 01/18/2012