I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a few things I need around the house. It has turned off cooler the last few days and a few leaves are beginning to scatter over the ground. I parked to the side of the store and climbed out of the car. There were clouds gathering in the sky and a stiff breeze that made it feel colder than it likely was. I was wishing I had thought to wear something a bit heavier than the light jacket I had on. I am not much for cold weather. I generally tell folks if I liked the cold I would move to Minnesota. About the time I was reaching to open the front door to the store, I heard a call and turned to see the Reverend Johnson walking toward me from Jake’s house across the road. He came bustling up with a bounce to his step.
“Ain’t this a fine day!” he was saying. “I sure does like the colder weather. Gets a man’s blood to flowing. Makes one feel alive! Can’t wait for winter to get here. Wake up every morning with frost on the ground. I’m certain God made winter to reward the faithful for their good works. Come on in and sit a spell. We got a fire going in that old stove. I sure plans to enjoy this winter. Don’t know at my age how many more I’ll get to see!”
The Reverend held the door for me and I went inside to the familiar smell of wood heat. It’s odd how different people are. There was the Reverend carrying on so about his enjoyment of cold weather and me thinking the first frost is enough winter to satisfy me. One cold snap and I’m all ready for spring. Jake was at the counter bagging up the groceries for Mrs. Davis. She’s a widow lives up the road on the other side of the railroad tracks. I only know her by sight. Her husband worked for the railroad most of his life and stayed up North on construction projects until he retired. I heard tell they thought the world of each other so long as he was working away from home but, after he retired and came back to Soagie, there was sure a lot of yelling coming from that house.
Jake waved as I walked past and I told him he sure looked sharp in his new glasses. He responded he was not so sure he liked them all that much cos he could see much better with them and could notice more work around the store that needed tending. I laughed at his little joke and followed the Reverend over toward the stove where Hermann Spencer was sitting with my friend Bob Havershold. Hermann was talking about the coming winter and how much he liked the cold weather. Him and the Reverend began to wax eloquent about the joys of cold weather and I began to feel out of place with my fondness for the hot temperatures the South is famous for. I took a seat on an old nail keg and let the two cold weather enthusiasts rattle on. I was thinking I might learn to appreciate the cold by getting a fresh perspective.
Then Bob joined in the conversation by telling Hermann and the Reverend they just did not know how to appreciate the cold until they had passed a winter in Chicago. Bob lived in Chicago until a few years back. He has told me he was an executive in an ad agency until his company was bought out by a multinational corporation and the new bosses decided they no longer had much use for him. That was when he and Gracie decided to move south. Bob was trotting out his favorite joke that there were a group of people in New York City who really liked the crime and the filth and the crowded conditions in New York, but they didn’t think it got cold enough so they moved west and started Chicago. We all laughed respectfully at his joke. Then he went on to explain that you might see a snow or two in a given winter in our part of the country. It sometimes comes down a couple inches or sometimes we get almost a foot of the white stuff. It makes driving hazardous and closest down public schools for a day or two, but it is all melted away soon enough and things are back normal. That is not the way it happens in Chicago.
In the North, when it comes a snow, the stuff stays. Snow plows are out in force with the first flakes and the main highways are mostly kept open, but the stuff gets piled up on the side of the road and it doesn’t melt. Neither does it stay pretty and white. The stuff turns a dirty gray and just sits there until the next snowfall when more snow gets piled upon the old ice already there. The piles keep building and turning gray until comes the warm weather of spring. That is when the snow all finally turns to dirty water and runs off. The nice part about Northern Winter is the grass stays green all winter long until the snows melt. Then the grass thaws and turns brown. But the new growth with that fresh green immediately replaces the old dead stuff and people break out their lawn mowers and a new year has started.
The Reverend was saying he likes a little snow all right, but he likes it to come and stay for just a little while to make everything pretty, then to go away. He lived a while around New York City when he was younger, pastored a church in the area, and he remembers how winter was. He likes it better in our area where winter is cold enough to make you feel good, but not so cold you get tired of it. I was thinking it does not take much winter for me to tire of it, but I would get tired of it a lot faster if I had to endure the sort of winters that come farther north.
Hermann was saying we live in a pretty good part of the country. With all the damage from major Hurricanes that tore up the Gulf Coast, all we got in our part of the world was a little rain. Comes winter and all we get is just enough winter to make cold weather enjoyable. If Hermann needed to choose a part of the world to live in, he couldn’t do better than to pick Soagie. Thinking about it, I have to agree with him.
END
