Will you have snow for Christmas? Perhaps it will be warm like it was here this morning. Or it may be freezing rain like we had yesterday. Yesterday, we woke to freezing rain and single digit temperatures. Today it got up to low sixties before the rain and wind started. My Mother called the weather we are seeing here “pneumonia weather.” That is what she called warm days interspersed with cold, rainy or snowy days.

Snow is not in the forecast. It wasn’t in the forecast for Corpus Christi, Texas in December, 1973 either. My wife had not remembered seeing snow in her twenty years. Having grown up near Peoria, Illinois, I did not remember a year without snow. Engaged to be married in January, I took my wife to meet my family.

We drove. It was the week before Christmas. It was in the mid 40’s when we left Corpus Christi.  We enjoyed good weather through Dallas and most of the way to Muskogee, Oklahoma. We were on Route 44 southwest of St. Louis when we saw the first snow. My wife was mesmerize by the “white stuff”.

We did not encounter any problems until we were on the outskirts of St. Louis. The sun had set. Snow limited visibility but not enough to force us to stop. It was after rush hour when we entered the city proper. Here, my wife’s appreciation for snow underwent a drastic change. The road surface became rough and we were limited to speeds in the range of 25-30 miles per hour. The reason was the snowplows had created a washboard surface on the road. If we tried to go faster, we bounced and the car slid. The trip through St. Louis was nerve-wracking. We were relieved when we crossed out of Missouri into Illinois.

Ruts in the road are good

I would like to report that my wife’s appreciate for snow improved with crossing the state line.  The snowplows in Illinois had kept their plows above the surface. They left a few inches of snow in which their truck tires formed ruts. I was familiar with driving under these conditions, snow ruts with the snow banked on both sides of the road. The rest of the trip home was at good speed while my fiancé complained I was going too fast. I don’t think I was but it was so long ago I can’t say I wasn’t. Regardless, I got us home safely.

My wife’s appreciation for snow took another turn the morning after we arrive home. She learned that you can make snowmen and have snowball fights. We spent several days there during which the roads cleared. The trip home was made on clear, dry pavement.

There were two positive results from the trip. My parents and siblings met my fiancé and she met snow. Both were fortunate occurrences. My fiancé became my wife in early January and the Navy sent us to Iceland where we saw many feet of snow.

I enjoy hearing from you. Do you have any stories about weather? Comment and let me know.

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