Springtime predictions

I remember it like yesterday. It was tenth grade geography, and it was being taught by an assistant football coach that everybody liked. We had good football coaches who also served as good basketball and baseball coaches, but when it came to teaching in the classroom, you could just tell that their heart wasn’t really in it. That day was a picture-perfect example of springtime, and the large windows at the old high school were wide open. Coach told us to go to page 20 in our World of Geography textbook, then he called on the class clown. “Now Johnny, after reading last night’s assignment, how would you explain what weather is?” Johnny took just a second. You could tell the wheels were turning, and he was battling with temptation. It was too much, he couldn’t resist the spotlight. Glancing out the window Johnny said, “Well Coach, I would have to say it’s mostly sunny to partly cloudy with a slight breeze. Nobody breathed. Johnny had gone too far. The image of a mushroom shaped cloud came into my mind. I noticed that Coach’s face was slowly turning the same deep red color as the Kalahari Desert on the pull-down world map right above the blackboard. And still, nobody breathed. Back then, the coaches did most all of their own paddling right outside there in the hall. If it was real bad, Principal Fordham did the honors. I’m thinking it was eight sharp licks, but it could have been 10. Anyhow, Johnny didn’t make it back to geography, and they said he was still running laps around the gym at four o’clock. That day, weather and climate got a lot more respect from that class of tenth graders at Swainsboro High School. I suspect most of us today, still pay a little more attention to the weather than we used to back then. Springtime officially arrives later this month on March 20 with the Vernal Equinox, but Daylight Savings Time begins next week on March 9. As the old saying goes, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Maybe March is grouchy about losing an hour. The Robins however seem to be happy. They have already arrived, and the hummingbirds shouldn’t be far behind. The Farmer’s Almanac forecast for the Deep South calls for a little warmer, wetter and more “thundery” March and April this year. Poor Richards/Ben Franklin Almanac agrees with that and says that normal temperatures will definitely persist on into the summer. No kidding? How ‘bout that for a news flash? Old Ben still has advice for just about anything. On Springtime agriculture he said, “plant your corn deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and corn to keep”. More famously, Ben also said “a penny saved is a penny earned”, and “Time is Money”. Mr. Franklin is also often credited by some with discovering electricity in a thunderstorm with his kite and a key. If he could see how that turned out and how many pennies that led to, he might have also said, “just one little shower and I could’ve owned Georgia Power!” Well Ben, you got your picture on the one-hundred-dollar bill, so that’s not too bad! And class-clown Johnny? Well, he moved to Tampa, Florida, where he still follows the weather pretty closely, especially during hurricane season. Johnny has learned that weather is no joke. Enjoy the coming Spring and keep your eye to the sky!