By Harold Brummett

Denmark Star Route

 

A couple of weeks ago the legacy news organizations were telling how a winter storm was pummeling our northern neighbors with ice, snow and cold temperatures. There was video coverage of tractor-trailers and cars of all sorts spinning out, in ditches, crossing medians, or just plain stuck.  

All that mayhem was no doubt caused by Southerners who wandered into the winter storm from states that just don’t know how to drive in the snow. It is the only logical conclusion I could come up with after years of being told ‘youse guys in the south just don’t know how to drive in the snow.’

Don’t want to either. Southerners don’t ski either, except on water. A Mississippi cattleman once said if the good Lord wanted him to ski He would have made bull crap white.  If Southerners wanted to drive in the snow, we would move to Alaska or Minnesota.  

I was told once that Minnesota had nine months of winter followed by three months of poor sledding. Gives Yankees lots of practice so they can maintain their proficiency in the art. The dab of winter weather we get here in North Mississippi is enough to fill my quota for the year. I’ll leave the winter driving to the professionals and yahoos in four wheel drive trucks.

We didn’t make snow ice cream this time. Not sure why except it was cold out there. Growing up in the 1960’s snow ice cream was an occasional treat. The ingredients were (as I recall) snow, sugar, uncooked eggs, a little vanilla flavoring all mixed together. The government would pop nukes in the west and we would eat the snow ice cream in the South. We all turned out fine, or so the government told us. 

I enjoyed the weather from my recliner while watching TV for hours and hours and hours, days and days of news coverage of the poor people in Los Angeles getting burned out. I hate that anyone loses their home or livelihood no matter if Malibu or Asheville to fire or flood. 

It looked like from my living room a bit more coverage went to Los Angeles than went to the Mountain Folk in North Carolina. We all know that decisions about who to help and news coverage are not  based on political affiliations or wealth  of the persons afflicted. We got emails to that effect. 

The chickens stayed in their houses as it snowed and sleeted. The birds enjoyed feed and warm water brought to them twice a day. Even my birds had the sense to stay on the roost until it was safe to venture out.