Aberdeen Winter

Hearing that we might have some low temperatures with possible ice/snow next week reminded me of winters in Mississippi - where we saw snow and ice once in a blue moon. As a child, I had never heard of fancy Doppler radar systems, people called metereologists, Gary England drinking games, and storm chasers. We didn't have a television until I was probably 12 years old, and even then, we could get only one channel late at night. So, if the daily newspaper from Memphis, Tennessee said it was going to rain, then it might - or might not. The local radio station, WMPA, may have made some weather predictions, but you had to listen at just the right time of day - somewhere between the farm report and Uncle Bubba's Swap Shop.

Anyway, my friend Sally Ann had an aunt Brooksie who was married to a man who worked for the local funeral home. I think he was nice enough, but I was always a little skeptical of him since he worked around dead people all the time. I remember him as being a quiet person, but I guess there aren't many chances to practice the art of conversation at a funeral home. When the weather would get really cold, Brooksie and her husband would run a hose up to the top of a bare tree in their front yard and, I suppose, let the hose run all night. The next morning, the tree would have icicles all over it - kinda like the trees you see decorated for Christmas where someone has paid someone else a lot of money to wrap thousands of lights around the trees. It was the prettiest thing to walk past on the way to and from school. It was the closest thing to a winter wonderland that we would see. If it ever DID snow, school closed, most of the town shut down, and everyone's mamas ran to the grocery store for milk and bread, just in case the trace of snow were to cripple us for weeks. :)