Over the last few weeks in Tennessee, winter has been the major discussion topic around every country store, church meeting and even over at the bank. Just trying to get from your car to the bank lobby with northern breezes whistling around every corner has given a totally new meaning to the term “cold cash.” And, it hasn’t been any different out on Uncle Sid and Aunt Sadie’s farm either. The other day as I pulled in the long gravel driveway of their farm, the winter wind was blowing to beat the band and the yellow glow of light coming from Aunt Sadie’s “Gone With the Wind” hurricane lamp in the window of their white frame house was a sure welcome sight on that dark cloudy day I made my visit.
Aunt Sadie met me at the kitchen door wiping her hands on her apron and led me to the back portion of their house where the old couple spends most of their time. There, sitting at the round kitchen table, was Uncle Sid enjoying a cup of hot coffee and a few of Aunt Sadie’s teacakes. He seemed to be in some kind of trance watching the snowfall out the back kitchen window onto the couple’s old farm. It was a pretty sight with the white landscaped hillsides and the many red cardinals getting seed from birdfeeders the couple religiously maintains. I guess I could have enjoyed it even more if it hadn’t been for the fact that we had seen about all the snow we wanted over the past several days.
After exchanging pleasantries and taking my seat at the table to also share with Uncle Sid some of Aunt Sadie’s teacakes, I asked Uncle the question we all seemed to be asking right now, “When is it going to warm up?”
The old man never bothered to even look my way, but answered, “It won’t be long from now. When it does, we will all start complaining about how hot it is and want to know when it is going to cool off. It has always worked that way and probably will for as long as we will be around. Folks up in Washington are all hested up over Global Warming and if it continues to keep on warming like they say it’s going to, then we all are going to freeze to death.”
Over near the kitchen sink Aunt Sadie chimed in to add her two cents to the conversation and said, “Yeah. I’m just glad they haven’t done any studying on Global Chilling. If that comes about, we had better plan on Tennessee becoming a desert and selling our cattle to buy camels, because it sure will get hot if the chilling works like this warming has done they are talking about.”
I could see that little sparkle in her eye and knew she was enjoying her opportunity to compete with Uncle Sid. However, I knew he would not let it end like that. While dunking his teacake in his coffee cup he answered her back, “You just may have something there Sadie. It is sort of like this wind chill factor and heat index we hear on the TV weather reports all the time. If they could reverse those two and give the chill factor in the summer and the heat index in the winter, instead of the other way around, it would make us all feel better about the temperature outside. You know it was so cold yesterday up in Washington, I saw on TV where the politicians had their hands in their own pockets and that is what I feel some of this Global Warming stuff is as well. I’ve been around for several years and I’ve seen weather cycles change every so many years and that seems to be what we have going on for us right now. When we were young, the snow was always deeper and the winters colder than what we experience when we are older. Just wait, we will forget about the cold before long and start worrying about the heat and dry weather. Always have and always will.”
You know, he’s right. It always helps to listen to a little common sense on a cold winter’s day.