Finally, a Post.
Y'all know that despite my penchant for Southern cooking and the word "y'all" I was born and raised in Michigan, the northern Lower Peninsula, to be exact. This is what you are seeing when you see people holding up their hand and pointing at it to show everybody where they are from. Right hand, palm side is the correct presentation. I am from the pad on the little finger. (That is one of those crazy things in life that you don't need to know, but they make it better, like knowing that all of Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Try it! Useless, but entertaining.)
For 18 years I lived on the shore of Lake Michigan, less than two miles away from it in fact. I could easily walk down there and dip my toes in the Lake anytime I wanted to. And for a long time after I moved here I laughed so hard at people who called these teeny-tiny southern ponds "lakes" and call bedroom furniture "suits." (A bedroom suit is Pajamas, not furniture.) I guess you go with what you have.
Well obviously I like the South better, and one of the main things I like about it is sunshine in the wintertime. Winter was always my so-so season, because although it was snowy and lovely, it was also gray. Maybe seven or eight times a winter the sun comes out, and the rest of the time it's hidden behind a bank of clouds so thick there is no blue. Those clouds bring clippers, arctic blasts, and the dreaded Lake-Effect snow. That is when a snowstorm moves in over a warmish lake and picks up all manner of precipitation to dump on the shore. So when everybody else got 12" of snow, we got three feet. But here in Nashville it hardly ever snows, and the sky is almost always blue even when it's cold, and if it does snow it's melted by 2:00 or so.
Y'all, I am used to snow. I am used to my dad shoveling the driveway only to have the plow go by and Dad cuss like a sailor. I am used to snow up to the eaves of the house because of blowing and drifting. I am used to walking on snow to school every day and thinking it's a heat wave when the temperature is 40.
What I am not used to is closing the school systems because an inch of snow was forecast. "Just in case." I am not used to the local news being on the scene at Kroger interviewing people who are buying all the milk. I can deal pretty well with the crazy drivers who don't know about driving in snow. I can deal with being snowed in. I've been in blizzards and whiteouts and seen snow so deep we couldn't get to our car, let alone drive it. But it absolutely baffles me that a little snow can shut down a town.
When I was a kid the only time they closed school is if it was so cold your skin would freeze when you went outside. But when you live somewhere where it snows almost every single day, I guess you have to adjust the standards.
I have a picture of what my car looked like this morning that I'll post later. In the meantime...do y'all think I'm crazy? I just can't adjust to buying a whole cart full of canned goods because of a couple of flakes.
For 18 years I lived on the shore of Lake Michigan, less than two miles away from it in fact. I could easily walk down there and dip my toes in the Lake anytime I wanted to. And for a long time after I moved here I laughed so hard at people who called these teeny-tiny southern ponds "lakes" and call bedroom furniture "suits." (A bedroom suit is Pajamas, not furniture.) I guess you go with what you have.
Well obviously I like the South better, and one of the main things I like about it is sunshine in the wintertime. Winter was always my so-so season, because although it was snowy and lovely, it was also gray. Maybe seven or eight times a winter the sun comes out, and the rest of the time it's hidden behind a bank of clouds so thick there is no blue. Those clouds bring clippers, arctic blasts, and the dreaded Lake-Effect snow. That is when a snowstorm moves in over a warmish lake and picks up all manner of precipitation to dump on the shore. So when everybody else got 12" of snow, we got three feet. But here in Nashville it hardly ever snows, and the sky is almost always blue even when it's cold, and if it does snow it's melted by 2:00 or so.
Y'all, I am used to snow. I am used to my dad shoveling the driveway only to have the plow go by and Dad cuss like a sailor. I am used to snow up to the eaves of the house because of blowing and drifting. I am used to walking on snow to school every day and thinking it's a heat wave when the temperature is 40.
What I am not used to is closing the school systems because an inch of snow was forecast. "Just in case." I am not used to the local news being on the scene at Kroger interviewing people who are buying all the milk. I can deal pretty well with the crazy drivers who don't know about driving in snow. I can deal with being snowed in. I've been in blizzards and whiteouts and seen snow so deep we couldn't get to our car, let alone drive it. But it absolutely baffles me that a little snow can shut down a town.
When I was a kid the only time they closed school is if it was so cold your skin would freeze when you went outside. But when you live somewhere where it snows almost every single day, I guess you have to adjust the standards.
I have a picture of what my car looked like this morning that I'll post later. In the meantime...do y'all think I'm crazy? I just can't adjust to buying a whole cart full of canned goods because of a couple of flakes.
posted by Jen at 12:28 PM
10 Comments:
Nope, I grew up 2 hours north of Detroit on the Canadian side of the border. You are not crazy. You are just "over-adapted". Or , in other words, it's what you get used to!
It is all about what you are used to. Here in Oregon we get very excited when we get snow and 2 or 3 inches will bring us 2 or 3 days of drama.
But I was raised in Arizona. Triple digit weather gets other parts of the country very excited and they probably do news stories on what they are doing to stay cool while we never even blinked.
I was born/raised in Minnesota. DId not have a full day off from school on account of weather EVER. Now I'm in Connecticut, where it snows every winter, many times. Yet they also close school at the drop of a few flakes. Drives me insane! This is a state that expects winter weather!!
Now when I lived in Savannah, Georgia and we had a "snow storm" consisting of less than one inch? PANIC in the grocery store. That made me laugh!
I never understood the run on the grocery store for an inch or two of predicted snow. I live in Maryland and we get a mixed case - no snow or very little for a winter or two and then slammed with 10 - 12 inches the next year. Of the school systems I've lived in, the decision to close schools or not rests with a handful of people.
When I was in High School, they closed school for the day once when there was about an inch of snow and it was still snowing a little when we would have left for school. By the time we would have come home, the weather was Spring-like and ALL of the snow was gone! I think it got a bit better after that!
BTW, the flakes that cause the panic at the grocery store? I believe they are called The TV Meteorologists!
I grew up in Colorado, where I walked to school every day and can't remember EVER having a snow day. These kids today are pretty spoiled .. or maybe its the adults that are in charge..its been 7 weeks in a row of snow this year (which is unusual) and the schools are talking about having to extend school in the spring because they've run out of snow days....guess the world has changed in 45 years....probably not for the better!
I used to live for "snow days"-- when school was cancelled due to SLEET when I was in school (in Louisiana). Of course, the mall was still open.. ;-)
My school used to be pretty normal about snow days for the New York suburban area- didn't really close that often, unless the roads were dangerous. WELL, we got a new superintendant (from Florida!), and now the schools are closing all the time. They once had a snow-less snow day on the date of the Drama Company's performance, canceling it. They had another one yesterday where there wasn't much snow, canceling my sister's Valentine's Day dance that was going to be raising money for breast cancer research. I'm just glad I'm not there anymore.
p.s.- I linked your blog on my blog, hope you don't mind. :)
Well I am still living in Michigan. I live near Grand Rapids (SW Michigan). Well today we have a blizzard warning. I think we have at least 2 feet on the ground and it is still coming down like crazy here. We are supposed to get winds up to 40mph and wind chills from -10 to -20. Yikes.
Can I come over? I'll bring milk. :)
YES! I went to Grand Valley! :)
Hi, there...
I just moved away from Nashville not too long ago and I also used to crack up at the way people FREAKED OUT over the snow. I lived there for four years and we had one big snowstorm (2003, I think?) that really threw people for a loop. I live in Miami now, though, where people freak out if it gets down in the 50's.
Anyway, I just found your blog and I really enjoyed reading about a Nashville knitter...
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