We have several more weeks of these cold mornings and nights, but they will end before long and then the days will be a lot better. We think we have it bad with the winter weather here, but it’s not as bad as some of the northern states.

We have some three months in our winter but some states have five or six months of really hard winters. They spend a lot of time shoveling snow are scraping ice from the windows and windshields, or either just deciding to stay home for another day. Most northern people will tell you they enjoy their winters and the snow, but many of them get smart and move south.

The snow is really nice to look at on Christmas cards or on the television shows but not in the front yard. One friend from Maine said they had times when they were children that you couldn’t get out the front door because the snow was too high, so they went up to the second floor and jumped out a window. That may have been exciting to kids but not to us rednecks from the South.

We really have some pretty areas in our country, and it’s nice to visit them in the late spring and summer months. Colorado is one of the prettiest states, but it sometimes starts the snow and freezing rain in September, and it goes on until March many times. A lot of campers spend a lot of time in South Fork, Colo., in a big campground that has lakes, cabins, music halls, square dance halls among many other attractions and also places for several hundred camp sites. A lot of people come with campers, trailers and motor homes, and spend several months there.

In this area the trees were part of the beautiful scenery, especially the changing of the leaves. The wild animals there were also something to watch, and a lot of pictures were made of their activities. A bear would come wandering through every now and then, and occasionally a big moose would visit. One of the things the bears liked and visited a lot were the humming bird feeders. For some reason they liked the sweet liquid in these things about as much as the humming birds, so springtime was a change for the animals, too.

The cold winters up north brought a lot of visitors to the South and helped the economy of several states. A lot of northerners would come to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana to spend the winter every year. Many of these Florida visitors came in new motor homes, and they spent the winter in these vehicles. A dealer in Alabama would go to Florida every spring and buy several of these motor homes and bring them back to Alabama to sell. Apparently some of these people just didn’t want to drive their rigs back north, and it helped the Alabama dealer make some money.

Springtime has meant many different things to different people regardless of what state they live in. Our children get just as tired of the cold weather as we oldsters do, and they really like to see springtime. They think school will be out in a few months and they can go swimming, ball playing or just loafing. The change to lighter clothing is pleasing to adults as well as children and helps to forget the cold mornings and nights with the cold hands and feet. Many children spend the winter months looking at the television or playing one of the electronic games and are glad to get out of the house during the day.

Everyone looks forward to the warmer days and nights, and we are all thankful we live in an area where we see these days and really enjoy our southern weather. We can also hope our northern neighbors make it where they live or come south for the winter.

Let’s be sure to thank our Good Lord for the blessings that He has given us. May He bless you all today.