As the wintry weather approached here, kids and adults who still have a bit of kid living inside them flushed ice cubes down commodes, wore their pajamas inside out and backward and did some sort of mysterious snow dance in order to assist the process of making it snow. At the same time, the local grocery stores had a run on bread and milk. This happens every winter in the South with just the mere mention of either snow, ice, sleet or freezing rain since if bad weather does come and we get stuck at home we like nothing better than to apparently sop the bread in the milk to form some really bad bread pudding. I have never quite understood this. I understand the thought that the weather may be bad enough to actually keep people in for a few days but if that is the case then I am willing to try to live on Pop-Tarts, Cheetos and saltine crackers washed down with some Cherry Coke. If I have to go to the grocery store to stock up to be barricaded for a few days I might as well have some food to really enjoy.
As the inclement weather arrived, the local news shows were a typical sideshow of unintended hilarity providing us with repetitive live shots from various locations around the area where believe it or not...news flash...it was snowing. Thanks to that crack investigative effort I didn't have to get out of my easy chair, walk to the window and see that for myself.
The snow and ice that did arrive amounted to maybe an inch at the most. At our house, we could still see the tip-top of the blades of grass in the yard as they were surrounded by the icy white of snow. It was enough snow and ice so that neighbor kids, bundled up in their heaviest coats and caps and boots, braved sliding down the hill in front of our house in homemade sleds made out of anything that might be slick enough to slide.
Since this is the South this small amount of snow and ice shuts down most everything. Those who no longer live in the South or have never lived here like to poke fun at us here because things come to such a standstill for something that to them is so routine. That's okay with us though. At least when we talk we don't talk with weird accents like they do.
This down time saw my work close for half a day one day and totally for the next. While there was some work I could do from home I soaked in the unexpected time off. I watched some television, read some and wasted some time on the internet. I also think I napped briefly only to awake when I dreamed I had run out of milk and bread.
My Dad worked with the same company for forty years before he retired. In that time I do not recall him missing many, if any, days from work, and especially none when the weather turned foul. Lots of rain could fall, storms could rage, snow could pile up and the temperatures could boil or freeze and he would be there. Much of the work he did he performed while in the elements and their extremes.
Standing on the porch this morning looking at that icicle I thought about Dad and that work ethic. He worked because he had to, yes, he worked because he enjoyed doing what he did, yes, but I also believe in some part he worked because he wanted his children to have a better life than he did and he understood one way he could do that was by working hard and being dedicated to the work he knew how to do. His hard work would then enable his kids to have opportunities he never had which would open us to opportunities to pursue careers and lives we wanted to pursue and feel fulfilled in doing so, not to settle for a life and job to just get us from one week to the next. I believe he understood his hard work and the dedication to doing what was expected of him in that work would someday stand on it's own to be seen for itself, even if the only ones who may have seen it were his children.
In light of this, I have to chuckle thinking about how me and my generation complain so easily about so many things. My Mom and Dad weren't unique in wanting their children to have things better than they did. Most, if not all of my friends, had parents who wanted the same for their children. And guess what? For the most part, they succeeded. We have cars with seat warmers, in-board DVD players and a system that tracks the car's movements from a satellite. We have phones that provide more information than the most-loaded computers did a just few years ago. We have home entertainment set-ups that bring images of people into our homes that are as lifelike as if they were standing right beside us even though we wouldn't really invite these people or their values into our homes for anything. We have more time on our hands, more money to use in a discretionary manner and more opportunities to do whatever we really want to do than any other generation in recent times, yet we grumble and complain constantly. We do this despite our parents working and sacrificing for years so that we might have it better than they did. And our parents succeeded in providing us such a world but we don't really understand or appreciate what we do have.
Right now, most of us are grousing about the cold weather. And it has been cold even though...news flash...it is winter and this is how winter is supposed to be. And while the cold weather is biting I understand I didn't have to stand in the cold for six hours fixing a broken water line, knee deep in muck and mud with water dripping all over the place as my feet and hands numbed from the cold and moisture. I didn't have to risk my neck driving to work on slippery roads surrounded by drivers sliding along on a wing and a prayer. I couldn't help but think that if my Dad did dream of his kids having it better than he did that he did succeed in this significant way, at least one of his kids didn't have to get out in the snow and the ice and the mess like he did, time after time, year after year.
On this Saturday afternoon, I gaze out the back wall of our house which is a wall of large windows which provide a view of the woods behind our house and into the subdivision several hundred feet away which is slowly creeping toward us. I walk toward these windows looking toward the sky, noting it as overcast. As my eyes drop I follow a rogue snowflake or two all the way to the ground below which remains an icy cover of snow. "If a snow is on the ground for three days, then it's waiting around for another one." I suppose this old saying will be tested soon enough as it appears some snow may still be around Sunday. If it does come true and another snow day happens that also means it will have to be cold. Cold as a mug. I hope that will be fine with me because while outside it may be cold, I plan to be inside. And, thanks to my Dad, inside it will be warm.
