Note:  Click on the little pictures below with beveled edges to see a larger version.

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Pennsylvania Traffic Jam (photos/video)

O, I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away! Look away!
Look away! Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land where I was born in
Early on one frosty mornin'
Look away! Look away!
Look away! Dixie Land.

Chorus:
O, I wish I was in Dixie!
Hooray! Hooray!
In Dixie Land I'll take my stand
To live and die in Dixie
Away, away,
Away down south in Dixie! 

In the space of two days, I received two "Forwardings,"  one was called, "WHY PEOPLE MOVE SOUTH" and the other was called, "WINTER'S HERE."  Both feature scenes of unimaginable snow accumulation and the misery of the people in it.  I guess my friends, Chuck and Jim are gloating over the relatively warm, sunny climate of the South in winter.

It's rare for us here in Dixie to see significant accumulations of snow.  Heck, lately it's been pretty rare to see any accumulation of snow, and this winter we've hardly had any cold weather at all.  It's January, and my daffodils are blooming in the backyard.   I remember back when we were in high school (or earlier), it seemed that each year we had at least two snowfalls that stuck in the Tri-Cities area.  A 6-inch snowfall was not uncommon at least once every couple years.  We all carried snow chains in the trunk of our cars, and we knew how to cope with a good snow pack.  On one occasion in 1958 or 1959, we had a freezing rain followed by a pretty heavy snowfall.  By the time I got my girlfriend (now my wife) home from our date, the roads were beginning to be covered over, and when I left to go back to my home, there was another inch or two all over the roads and fields, and the snow was still falling.  I remember it being quite light for so late at night.  All sounds were muffled by the snow--I was reminded of the words of the hymn, "Silent Night . . . "  No cars were on the roads on my way back to Sheffield from Wilson Dam Road, and  I didn't bother to get out my tire chains.  In fact, in a fit of giddiness not so characteristic of me, I cavorted in my 48 Chevy, spinning in circles and sliding my car over the ice-based, snow-covered roads, arriving home about an hour and a  half later than I ordinarily would have.  That bright, snowy night that seemed so surreal still lives in my memory.

This is me and my brothers in about 4 inches of powder.

More commonly, we only get light dustings, and the snow that sticks never covers the streets--and it's gone the next day.  The photo on the right was taken in front of the high school and depicts Eleanor Morrison, Carol Cahoon and Elise Hastings in snow that doesn't even cover their shoes.  But, it was enough to make snowballs.  Elsewhere, whole front yards are cleared of snow in the process of collecting enough to make a snowman (or "snowchild," judging from the size of the snow sculpture).  Some years we get no snow at all.  I've been in Tuscaloosa, now, for 6 years.  We had a light snowfall the first year while we lived in an apartment during the construction of our home and one more a year later.  Since then, there's been no snow on the ground in winter.

I'm not being entirely truthful about the benign nature of our winter precipitation.  Around the first of 1992, Georgia and I got caught in Tuscaloosa on a weekend visit to our almost 2 year old grandson, Jacob, and his family by a 3-4 inch snowfall that  kept us from returning home to Montgomery for a day.  Even then, the snow blanket still covered the Interstate highways, and we had to drive in the ruts created by the car and truck traffic.  In March of 1993, we had what we would call a "blizzard."  All the Spring-breakers were caught on the Interstate highways returning from their revelries in Florida and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast.  They had to take refuge in shelters, churches and homes for about 3 days before the highways began to become passable.  That one was about a six-incher, but it stayed cold and the snow did not melt readily.  I have to go all the way back to 1962 (or thereabouts) when I was living in an apartment on the side of Red Mountain in Birmingham in my 2nd year of medical school to remember another crippling snowfall like that one.

Still and all, we are blessed with much milder weather and lesser numbers on the snow depth indicators than those areas depicted in the two links above and in the photos of U.S.A. snowfalls in the margins of this page.  These are places where winter comes, and the snow pack is really, really deep.

This is Buck & Judy's home in Winchester, MA (northern suburb of Boston) on February 18, and that's Judy on the steps.  Unbelievably mild winter!  There are places in the Southland with more snow on the ground than here.

Buck is pointing to the pile of snow the plow pushed up against his birch trees.  Maybe this is a bit more than in most places in the Southland.  It looks cold, the way Buck is dressed.