THE WEATHER

Across the Fence 


By Arvord Abernethy 

“Have you ever seen anything like this before? How many times have you heard that lately when talking to someone about the weather?” 

It is easy to forget some of the bad weather spells in the past, and we have had some cold snaps in the past when the temperature got as low and even lower, but really I don’t remember of having morning after morning with temperatures as low at this time of the year. The cold north winds just couldn’t seem to stop. I agree with some of the old timers when they say that they have never seen the wind blow so hard for such a long time as that wind storm we had on April the first. There was no fooling around in it. The long, tinder limbs of the Robert Witzche’s Weeping Willow make an excellent weather vane for us to check the wind by. 

On April 8, 1938, I had to come to Hamilton from Allison in the Panhandle to see about some business. I had planned to come the next day, but the north wind got harder and colder, so I left, late in the afternoon and drove as far as Vernon. I awoke the next morning to find snow, but the roads were passable. The drifted snow at Allison had the roads closed for several days; even some stock froze to death there. There was practically no snow here, but the corn at the ranch, which was six to eight inches tall, was killed and had to be replanted. 

As I sit here Sunday night scribbling off a few lines, I’m thinking that the person who said that we might not have a spring this year, but that it will go from winter right into summer, might be right. We are about an inch short in our average rainfall, but aren’t you glad we haven’t had what Louisiana and Mississippi have had? 

When you don’t have anything to talk about, talk about the weather. When you don’t have anything to write about, write about the weather.

Shared by Roy Ables

ACROSS THE FENCE