By Staff
Jason Cannon, FCT Publisher
There's only one thing that I don't like about winter – the cold weather the season brings with it.
For the past several weeks I have been thoroughly enjoying the unusually mild temperatures that rang in with the new year.
However, the cold bitter truth settled in again yesterday as old man winter came back from an early retirement.
If it's too cold for shorts, it's too cold for me.
Yesterday it was basically too cold for anything. You know, that kind of cold that makes your cheeks hurt when you walk outside.
Tuesday, temperatures in Russellville dipped below freezing and wind-chill factors dropped in the low 20s.
And as temperatures hover on the brink of freezing, the outside chance of snow enters the picture.
I love living in Alabama. It's the only place that I know of that goes so berserk at the mention of the word snow.
I was in middle school in 1993 when the great blizzard crippled Birmingham.
I remember that day, or days vividly. I am born and raised in Alabama so I had barely seen snowfall – maybe a couple of inches at the most.
I remember Meteorologist James Spann telling the viewing audience that this could be a snowstorm of historic proportions – and he was right.
When I woke up that March morning, we had about 13 inches of snow all across the yard. It was so deep that we couldn't open the storm door on the front of our home. A snow drift four feet high was piled against it and holding it closed.
No power for miles, and with roads blocked by snow for even more miles, I remember all the children on my street flooded outside with garbage can lids to slide down my steep driveway. In Alabama, a plastic garbage can lid is just as good as a sled and a much wiser investment.
I remember the ensuing next few days to be a lot of fun. I didn't have to go to school, my dad couldn't go to work and we spent most of those days in the yard playing in the snow with friends and neighbors.
It's been almost 14 years since that blizzard and there are absolutely no rumblings of anything like that happening anytime soon here.
I might not like cold weather all that much, but it can be fun every once in a while.