Doctor Grandma

Sun sets sometime around 7 – 7:30. Just before dark, a few bats can be seen flitting high above, in quick, darting motions, almost like birds but way too fast and changing directions too many times, eating up any insects hovering in the air. The large heron swoops in, making a low squawking sound. It will be found stalking small fish on the edge, even after dark. The frogs have gone into hiding, they are no longer to be seen jumping across the sidewalk, moving from woods to water. I know that deer start their dusk movement, but they are not seen near our houses. We occasionally see them crossing the roads nearby. It seems to me I don’t hear song birds as much as last year. Perhaps the mockingbirds are mocking other types of bird calls, haven’t heard them singing much.

The trees have only now noticibly started turning. They won’t be as bright yellow, orange and red as up north. They turn a dingy-type red down here, then turn brown and fall in maybe November. We’ve had a couple nights where it hit into the 30s, days still in the mid-to-high 70s. 

I grew up in the plains area of Indiana. Wind whips across those straight, flat cornfields in Winter like nothing you’ve ever felt before. Highways close because snow drifts so bad it closes the highway. Snow is no respector of roads cars need to drive on. It also causes “snow blindness” which is when snow is blowing so hard that you cannot see through it. You become literally blind. Most snows are not this bad; it depends on the wind and the amount of snow. Temperatures also make a difference. Getting cold enough to snow is not the entire snow story. When it is JUST cold enough to snow, it actually feels WARM — something like 30 degrees. At those temperatures, the snow melts fast. It also packs into a good, hard snowball which can be like getting hit with solid rock. The colder the temps., though, the less the snow packs well. It is too dry and fluffy to pack. Not good for snowman building or fort building, not good for snowball fights. Besides that, you turn blue with cold when you’re outside too long, in the really cold weather.

As a kid, I would be dressed in numerous layers of clothes and boots, and sent outside to play for hours. We had a blast just playing in our front and back yards, making snow angels, making a snowman, digging and building a “fort” and crawling in it, hiding under the pine tree in our front yard, sledding down the small hill on the side of our yard, or sledding with friends at a larger park.

One winter I was sledding with a good friend at the Country Club hill. This was a huge hill, great for sledding a long, long distance down. We were going down on a round disc, turning around as we went, when my friend’s brother decided to THROW his sled right out in front of us! He was a young boy trying to do something “funny”. It was not funny and knocked me out unconscious. I must have been thrown. It is the only time in my life I woke up with a circle of concerned faces looking down at me. My friend and I walked to her house which was not far, and I don’t think I ever told my parents about the incident. (The only other time in my life I was knocked unconscious was with the SAME girlfriend at the same park, when we had the brilliant idea to ride our bikes down a black tar hill right next to this sledding hill. I did a somersault off my bike, head first forward, and woke up in a few minutes.)

The year we lived in Michigan was my ice skating year. On Saturday mornings, I would go early and try to be the first one on the ice, which was actually a frozen pond or lake. I loved to watch the guy in the machine out cleaning the ice to make it smooth. I would walk to the place to skate, which was a good distance in itself. I was always cold when I arrived and looked forward to the hot chocolate inside the building where we would rent our skates.

My snow memories include more than once being literally “snowed in” for days. Being snowed in means you cannot go outside — like “AT ALL”. You are stuck inside your house. Hopefully you have enough food for a few days. If so, then it really becomes a wonderful, cozy time of family togetherness. I mean that. During those times, their schools would close, we would watch movies or more often choose one game which then turned into a tournament for 4-5 days. For example, Monopoly championships; Euchre; or just simple games of UNO. Those are also some of the rare times when we put an entire jigsaw puzzle together. I remember one year we did 3 of them. Some of my best memories are during those times, being stuck in the house with all my kids (and husband). We would cooperatively dig ourselves a path to get out eventually, with snow shovels, and help dig the neighbors out as well. Depending on where you live, you have to wait longer or shorter times for the snow plows to get to you, so you can actually DRIVE somewhere.

Cold is truly cold, up north. You can lose fingers and toes if they become frostbit. I remember one time my husband and I, being young with no working car, decided to walk downtown to get on a bus to get somewhere else. The walk was SO COLD, our fingers went numb, and we had GLOVES ON. That is below zero weather.

When we lived across from Purdue stadium, it made no sense for me to drive to campus, since I could walk in the same amount of time. But the walk was about a mile, to get from our house to where I would attend or teach a class, as a grad student. I walked, & became used to wearing my LONG winter coat which went below my knees; warm gloves; and a scarf which wrapped across my face (to protect my nose), around the back of my furry hood which was also over my head, and then tied again in front. I was SO WARM, it worked very well.

The nice thing about these stories is that they actually are just memories. Today the high in South Carolina is 59 and lows tonight in the mid-30s, and they think they are cold. This is not cold.