Weather You Like It or Not

By Jody Worsham

All rights reserved for map and darts

We have watched the Weather Channel since the time it was only weather and music…on a loop, long before there were actual programs on the channel.  I think we were fascinated by the number of times their forecasts would be accurate and the number of times they missed completely.  Of course with Texas, you really can’t fault their forecasts.  It depends on the exact moment you tuned in to the station.  There is an old saying that if you don’t like Texas weather, wait five minutes and it will change.

I guess that is the reason they don’t name storms in our state, too many kinds.  Dust storms would take you through the alphabet in a week.  Thunderstorms, will that’s a daily occurrence in the spring.  Tornadoes, water sprouts, dust devils, “northers”…well I don’t think even the Cabbage Patch manufacturers could come up with enough names for all those.  Instead, we just seem to classify weather by names with our own lingo to describe the weather.

There’s the “blue tail norther.”  Now that is a cold wind blowing in from Canada cold enough to freeze your pipes and cover the tanks (stock ponds) with ice.   “Nothing between us and the North Pole except a barbed wire fence. “  Now that is different from just a “norther” blowing in.  A “norther” can drop the temperature twenty degrees in five minutes. 

  A “scorcher” is a summer day when the temperature is above 103 degrees.  “Big bank building up” is a row of dark clouds on the horizon building up to a thunderstorm or possible a “blue tail norther”.  A “downpour” is more than two inches of rain in an hour.  Of course you can have a downpour at our house and across the street they only get a sprinkle.  “Bottoms gonna fall out” means a heavy thunderstorm is going to produce a downpour soon.   We also have our share of hurricanes but we mostly just use the Weather Channels name since those are pretty widespread.

The one thing we don’t have a lot of, except in the Panhandle area, is snow. Let an inch of snow fall in any other area of Texas, and Jim Cantores could broadcast non-stop for a week.  First of all, at the first sign of a snow flake or sleet, all school administrators hop on a school bus at 4a.m. to check the bridges and roads.  They must decide if it is school as usual, late start, or If  they deem it is too slick for safety, they declare it a “Bad Weather Day” and alert the radio and TV stations, activate the automated parent calling program and school is cancelled. 

At that point all the children that have been waiting for the school cancelation news, gear up in their Carhart deer hunting clothes, ski clothes, or don seven layers of sweatshirts, thermal-underwear, and hats.  Without proper snow gear, Wal-Mart sacks are duck taped around tennis shoes and Zip-lock bags cover gloves.  Dish pans, cardboard boxes, and trash can lids are pressed into service as sleds.  Some kids are lucky enough to find left over inflatable rafts from the summer in the garage and those also become sleds.  Everyone races to the nearest drive-way, ditch, or anything with the slightest slope.  They have to hurry before the snow melts or is scraped away by careening cardboard sleds.  Mini snowballs are made and midget Snowmen are quickly made. Everyone sends their pictures into the TV stations. Whatever clean snow can be found is piled into a bowls for snow ice cream.

If there is more than an inch of snow lasting more than a day, the highway department will start sanding the bridges and iced roads but that only slows down the number of wrecks

Now I know my Northern friends think we are insane for cancelling school, shutting down the city , and declaring a State Holiday all because of a little snow; but it so seldom snows here, no one knows how to drive on it.

.  I took lots of pictures and made snow ice cream so the eight-year-old and twelve-year-old would have some kind of reference when the Weather Channel talks about Snow Storm Zelda or they study snow in science class.

In my little town, we usually get a heavy snow (for us) about every ten years. We had a good snow last year so it probably won’t snow again until 2024. By then I should have my guest room cleaned and set up for Jim and his crew.  

If it snow 3 inches, we’ll be in the news!

Remember the Ala What?

By Jody Worsham

All rights reserved for a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence Computers”

You know how once in a while you try to do something mannerly your mother taught you to do in social situations?  Or you try to put into practice what you learned in that very expensive networking workshop about making connections and establishing relationships?  This is one of those times when I tried both.

My twelve-year-old entered the Daughters of the Republic of Texas essay contest.  The topic was William Barrett Travis and the Victory or Death letter he wrote from the Alamo.  She did her research.  I helped her outline it.  I asked her questions; she formulated answers.  She dictated; I typed.  She printed the essay.

When she needed more words, she quoted lengthy passages from Travis’s letter, giving credit and using quotation marks I am proud to say.  She printed the essay again.  This time there were the correct number of pages done in the font and size required.  She submitted her essay.

And it won second place!  She received a certificate and a gift card.  Here she was barely into her second decade and she got “paid” for her writing.  I’m still waiting for my first payment for an essay and I am waaaaay past my second decade.  Still, I was happy and proud for her.

The DRT representative came to the school for the presentation and took pictures for the local newspaper.  I also took pictures with my i-pad.  She asked if I would e-mail my pictures to her so she would be sure to have a variety of shots to choose from for the newspaper.

I did and I also took this opportunity to write an e-mail thank you note like my mother taught me.  Ok, my mother said to use Hallmark notecards and ink, but this is the electronic age and Mother is now 94.  I thanked the representative for the encouraging words she gave to my child, for running the contest so efficiently, and for taking the time to personally come to the school for the presentation.

Thank you note written in a timely manner….CHECK!

Establishing connections and relationships (I have an eight-year-old who will enter the 7^th grade on schedule hopefully and will also enter the contest.)…CHECK!

E-mail address entered…Daughters of the Republic of Texas dot yada yada…CHECK!

Subject:  DRT Award…AUTO CORRECT

Subject:  DIRT Award…Not CHECKED!                                               

Banishment from future DRT contests is eminent.  However, as a proud Texan,  I take comfort in the fact that William Barrett Travis did not have access to a computer.  If he had, the Texas battle cry might have been

                                       “Remember the A la mode”

The Best Little School House in Texas

By Jody Worsham

All rights reserved for small schools

I haven’t been to a small high school graduation in…well since my own graduating class of nineteen students over fifty years ago.  Since my twelve-year old will be graduating from her new school in ___I can’t believe it___six years___we decided to attend. 

I knew, from the limited parking, to get there early.  What I didn’t know was that I would be sitting in the bleachers, the chairs on the gym floor being reserved for family and friends of the graduates.  Black plastic was duck taped to the gym windows (I could fix that.  There would be proper blackout inserts for my child’s graduation) in order for the slide presentations to be seen.  A portable stage was set up at one end of the gymnasium with a curtained backdrop and chairs for the administrators who would be presenting the diplomas.  Twenty-four chairs were lined up to the right of the stage for the graduating class of 2013.  Eighteen chairs were set up next to the giant screen for those presenting scholarships to the graduates on the opposite side.  At 6:45 the principal, superintendent, secretary, and counselor began bringing in the potted ferns for the edge of the stage.

At precisely 7p.m. the Graduating Class of 2013 marched in appropriately spaced to make the most of their numbers to a recording of “Pomp and Circumstance” and amidst shouts, hoorahs, and whistles that would have put my husband’s PhD.  graduation at A&M to shame.   Clearly these were proud and possibly relieved parents to see their children about to graduate.

After the prayer (yes, they pray at this school) the historian presented the history of the class.  Seven of the twenty-four who started kindergarten together were graduating together.  She named the others and the year they joined the class.   The Salutatorian gave a moving speech about having a rough start but then was guided and challenged by teachers who knew when to tug and when to hug.  The Valedictorian entertained us with a speech from the view point of a modern teenager whose parents and teachers were often viewed as not so modern. I laughed.  I cried.  I remembered.

Scholarships were then presented.  When the presentations were over twenty-four graduates shared in over $400,000 in scholarships.  Every single graduate received a scholarship from the community in the amount of $1,000.

The power point presentation was next.  Pictures of special moments in each graduates’ life appeared on the giant screen. Black plastic and duct tape quickly forgotten.  Captured moments filled with laughter.  Some pictures with stories shared only by the graduates but special all the same.

An hour and a half had elapsed when the superintendent came to the podium.  Some have asked “Couldn’t we shorten this ceremony a bit” but I suspect for the parents of these graduates, it has gone way too fast.”

And with that each graduate came forward to receive his diploma.  The principal having attested to the fact that all graduates had met the requirements set forth by the state of Texas, declared them high school graduates and instructed them to move their tassels to the other side of their mortar board hats.

Then each graduate was given the opportunity to present roses to those who held a special place in their hearts.  It took a bit of time as they searched the crowds for the ones they had selected, but nobody seemed to mind. 

They reassembled, the benediction, the recessional and it was over.

Fifty years ago as I received my diploma, I was excited about the future. Today I am once again exited for the future of my children who will soon graduate from this little school.

The school is growing as others seek that which is so special about this school.  Another classroom is already being built.  Growth is necessary but I hope it never grows so large that each graduate could not receive a scholarship, or the power point reduced to strobe like flashes of pictures or the opportunity for the seniors to present their roses. I would miss that.

Small school doesn’t automatically equal a small education. I hope this school never outgrows what makes it so special.  Size matters when it comes to the size of the schools’ heart, not the size of its graduating class.