Seeing white flakes rain down both thrills me and chills me to the bone. As a child growing up in central Alabama, we only had one snow a year and looked forward to being out of school. It wasn’t until I was much older I came to understand school closings happened because of hazardous conditions and not just so children could stay home and amuse themselves with powdery flakes.
Southern cities weren’t designed to deal with winter storms. This is a point of contention with transients being it causes paralysis for both city and rural dwellers, causing a kingdom of isolation. Preparation for winter storms for those in the south’s northern most cities and towns is similar to our practice for hurricanes. Hording bread, milk, canned goods and water is commonplace when weather forecasts snow and ice. I recall my grandparents coming to stay at our house in 1984 during an ice storm and they lost electricity for a week and I, myself, did a 180 degree turn on an over pass trying to drive to work after a 1992 storm.
Alabamians stare out of the window in wonder at the winter wonderland before them. Some of us who’ve never seen a snow storm can only imagine what it feels like to look up at the white sky and taste the flakes, to gaze upon a white lawn and snow capped roof tops. It’s a perfect Christmas card depiction of serenity.
Northerners say ‘pshaw’ at our panic whenever frozen precipitation is predicted. They say we make mountains out of molehills. I must say I do my best not to take offense at their sneers. It doesn’t matter how much skill one may have at navigating a car in powder. Nothing can stop chaos which comes with black ice. Hundreds wreck their cars and fall on their lawns because of the ineptness of the rarity. We are told to stay home and be patient for a reason. Last winter’s ice storm was a lesson well learned.
When the forecast calls for a winter storm chop firewood, wrap pipes and hunker down and pray unapologetically because we southerners are tough. We live with 100 percent humidity with 100 degree temperatures, mosquitoes as large as a small aircraft, sharks, bears and alligators. We in the panhandle live with these extreme temperatures in the summer time but we know how to hunt, fish, garden and make our way. We know how to deal with tornadoes, hurricanes and we fight for our rights. We may cringe at the thought of snow and ice but we’re from the south and we will survive.
As a school girl, listening for my school to be listed as “closed” kept me in great anticipation in the early morning hours. Waiting and hoping to stay home and play in the snow is a fond memory. It never crossed my mind this event could be dangerous or life changing for some who tried to mosey out in their car and go to work because of a contract, deadline or business deal. As long as the heater was working, mom had soup on the stove and my brother was willing to hang out with me, snow was great.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Winter in the south proves courage not cowardice