Chapter 14
Madame March certainly came in this year like a lion with her bitter cold winds whistling through the trees. And just to make sure we don’t forget how powerful she CAN be, the weatherman seems to think we might be in for more of the same true-to-fashion weather.
How did the nursery rhyme go? March winds bring April showers—then something about May flowers! I think it should be revised! March winds bring Oklahoma Tornadoes! It doesn’t rhyme too well but it’s about true!
It seemed like half my childhood was spent sitting in a storm cellar waiting for a big black cloud to make up its mind just exactly what it wanted to do.
There was NO amount of rushing the decision either.
It might take five minutes to make up its mind to go pester some other town, or it just might stay the whole night worryin’ us to fits! !
When the tornado alert blew, all of us kids jumped out of bed, grabbed for shoes and a jacket, and were in the cellar before we bothered to open our eyes. Mother had US trained.
But she never could get Poppa trained. He was about as slow and contrary as the clouds!
The fire whistle would sound, and he would yawn, scratch his head, and sit up on the side of the bed.
By the time Poppa REACHED for his half shirt half the neighborhood would be in the cellar telling age old tales about how this tornado blew away all of the United States and half of Mexico when they were young.
But he didn’t really care about the stories—he DID care about his shirt.
ALL of the buttons had to be fastened-even the ones on the sleeves.
Mother would begin to get frantic when he picked up his bibbed overalls—the fasteners on the sides had to be finished just like the ones over his shoulder. He had to put his shoes and SOCKS on… and the laces were tied in nice, neat bows! And THEN he went to the bathroom to comb his hair!!
By the time he arrived the storm had usually given up on scaring Ebb Essary and had gone on down the road!
But when POPPA arrived at the cellar door—most of the time to inform us that the sky was clear—he was the only fully dressed, SMILING person around!
Course he didn’t have to listen to all those gory tales about how cows were found in the top of trees, either!
So, the winds blow and in a few weeks when the storm clouds gather, I’ll get my own three ready to make the fast trip to safety while THIER father buttons all the buttons on his shirt and COMBS his hair—I’ve hidden the red and white stripped overalls he wore to the football games and his shoes don’t have laces…
Just a note to my offended reader of last week:
A very great man once said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time but you cannot please all of the people all of the time.” It has never been or will never be my intention to offend anyone.
It is my intention to make my readers smile… my apologies for not making you smile!