Sometimes it appears that the seasons get confused in northwest Arkansas. Last Spring we had a snow in May. I don't recall ever seeing that before.
The winter of 2012 was hardly a winter at all. But apparently things got straightened out for the winter of 2013-2014. This has been a real winter, with temperatures staying in the single digits for days on end, and giving us all the sleet and freezing rain and snow that we could ever need. Interestingly, some of our snows have been what I call Iowa-type snows, with very cold temperatures making the snow dry and fluffy, such that the snowflakes blow and drift with the wind.
I'm seeing several signs that springtime is beginning to gain the upper hand as it wrestles with winter. The winter is finally tiring, and springtime is flexing its muscles more confidently. Last year, I planted a little maple tree in our back lawn, and I've been concerned whether or not it has been able to survive the duress of our tough winter. It is looking encouraging. There are no leaves yet, but I see signs of life as it fills out the buds that will soon break open. We are already late with the spring garden. My folks used to say we need to have our green peas in the ground in February. Somehow, though, I find it hard to plant peas in ice and snow and frozen ground.
I suppose springtime has always been a time when we hope Mother Nature will be friend and not foe. A hundred years or so ago, one of the big sources of country livelihood around Pea Ridge and the rest of Benton and Washington counties was apple orchards. At one time, Benton County was the largest producer of apples of all the counties of the U.S. It was the apple industry that was most influential in bringing railroads to our part of the world, especially the railroad that runs through Garfield, Rogers and down to Fort Smith. Each year, the Apple Blossom Festival was celebrated in Rogers. But for apple orchards, one springtime could be a great boon to production, another springtime could be a killer. I remember just a few years ago that we had a month of March that would have been the orchard growers worst nightmare. About the time the leaves were tender on the trees and the apple blossoms were in full bloom, we had a morning frost with temperature in the 20s, and just about every apple blossom on my Dad's trees was killed. There were almost no apples that year. The year before we had peeled apples, made pies, made apple sauce, made apple butter, and given apples away to everyone who would accept them. Then, nothing!
One of the happiest signs of spring, to me, besides warmer temperatures, is the appearance of the jonquils. Their yellow flowers are about the first to try peeking out and showing signs of new life. I guess that's why my family always used to call them Easter flowers, because they are signs of new life breaking out. Have you noticed Easley hill lately? For the past several years, June Easley has been adding her touches to the beautiful hillside that begins the south approach into Pea Ridge. Take a look as you come through Little Sugar Creek Valley on Arkansas Highway 94 from Rogers, and see if you don't think it is a grand sight as you start up the hill into the south part of Pea Ridge. I've long thought that our town needs a grand entrance. Usually I have thought of having a grand entrance from the west, on Arkansas Highway 72. Sometimes it looks like we are getting there, sometimes not. But I believe that now, with June's flowers on Easley hill, the south approach is becoming our city's grand entrance.
I'm also seeing some other early jonquils coming out. I see Effie's flowers on the Brush Creek north slope, more jonquils at the front of Mayda Clanton's old home place on McColluch Street, and several clumps to the south of Billie Jines's house. I'm not sure that we saw the first robin of spring, but we have been having several robins this week. Isn't it supposed to be good luck to see the first robin of spring?
Of course, not everything about spring can be glorious. For the farm, it means thawing soils, muddy slogs around the cattle feeders, and it means slippery hillsides that my little Dodge Dakota can't negotiate. My wife thinks I need a new four-wheel drive truck. How many of you guys have a wife who thinks you need a new four-wheel drive pickup? How come I have to be so attached to my little paid-for truck?
Contact Jerry Nichols by email at [email protected], or call him at 621-1621.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, 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.
Editorial on 03/26/2014