  you smell the magnolias? Perhaps it's the honeysuckle smelling so sweet or gardenias. *smile* all winter here. We have a week of "winter" and the next week might be very pleasant. Then every few years we feel oh so lucky to have snow. Boy is that an exciting thing! The children really love it, schools close, businesses too as we have no snow plows here. If it just comes a little dusting, we are all very disappointed, but we even enjoy a "sprinkle" of snow falling, it is so rare, it is enough to get everyone to the window to see the pretty sight. We have had a few snow storms that were deep enough to be pretty in my lifetime and lasted a couple of days. Once it was with us for about 3 days. We felt like we were in a dream world. Of course everyone was pretty much house bound, but that was ok too, as we just enjoyed seeing the snow, and most folks had supplies enough for a couple of days for food to eat. Those who didn't were looked after and given supplies by those with vehicles like 4-wheel drive trucks, etc. and could drive in the snow and take things to them. In the south we don't let a neighbor "do without" if we can help. Alabama, not many some years and other years, several, and some really "hard" freezes. I have seen it go as low as 3 degrees here and we really think we're freezing at that point, which is true, we are. I have also seen several Christmas days go by when it was so hot, the air conditioner had to be turned on to keep the cooking going on. It probably wasn't much over 80, but it was hot for Christmas. I have seen it turn so cold right after a big rain that it froze on the trees, bending them over with the ice, as pretty as snow, but very dangerous because of the weight. That causes many broken electric lines too. in the south, are especially strong in that we have learned to survive, we know how to work hard if we have to, and we southern women are indeed "Steel Magnolias". the worst things that can happen to a woman, from losing your child to death, having serious cancer situations, all carrying on, doing their best to keep the family as normal as possible and never show anything but a strong face to the public. Widows, who go on taking care of large families, never complaining through their heartache or hard times. I've seen a young woman die of breast cancer, and watched her 17 year old daughter step in and fill her shoes in the housekeeping, cooking and going right on to finish high school and then college. I know it was not easy for any one of these people, but they have an inner strength which I believe we got from our southern heritage which also, in most cases, includes a strong faith in God, I am speaking of Christian faith, we live in what is often called "the Bible belt". There is a church on many street corners, of almost every denomination. It is this faith along with the heritage of a society once crushed, that gives us our strength, to be the real "Steel Magnolias". "Lewis Grizzard"
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