Snow, Ice and Stage Fright

This time of year I always think about two poems from two of my favorite authors.  Fall Leaves Fall by Emily Brontë and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.  I’m sure the leaves have already fallen in most places, in Louisiana the live oaks don’t drop their leaves and the rest of the trees are always slow in starting.  At least the sycamores and bald cypress are changing colors, so it won’t be too much longer.  I often long for the snow in Louisiana, although when it does fall it covers the ground by an inch or two, three or four if you are having a really great winter.  What’s really great is that, when it does happen, the entire place shuts down.  We deep southerners don’t know how to drive in snow and ice!   It gives us time to stay at  home and make pine needled snowmen, wishing that we had enough to go around so we could make one of those crazy snowman scenes like Calvin and Hobbes used to do.  My favorite was the car accident.

Living in the Appalachians didn’t change the fact that this southern girl couldn’t drive in snow and ice, the only difference there was that the town didn’t shut down and my boss expected me to drive in anyway.  Volkswagen Buses from the 70′s era are not good for this task.  Most times I drove with the window open because the windshield refused to thaw.  I can’t blame the windshield, there wasn’t any heat to thaw it, just colder wind hardening the ice in place.

Robert Frost was probably a lot colder riding his horse through the snow on the Winter Solstice. “Between the woods and frozen lake, the darkest evening of the year.”  Funny thing about Robert Frost and this poem, I had to memorize it in 7th grade at my Catholic school in New Orleans.  I knew it inside out and front and back.  When I stood in front of the class, I didn’t know the author, the name of the poem or the first line, even though I had prompted the girl in front of me to help me if I blacked out.  I got a zero that day in english class.  I still have that poem memorized.  Public speaking has always been an issue, which is not a pleasant handicap when you need to do poetry readings or discussions.  My time working at the state park helped with that a great deal, but I will never be caught without at least a notecard when doing any planned speaking engagement.  Just in case.