Rain, Sleet, Snow, Nor Gloom of Night

First of all, I never signed a contract saying I would work in rain, sleet, and snow. But I have. Actually, I probably enjoy it more than most. I came across a newspaper clipping today that reminded me of a particularly difficult day nearly a quarter century ago. Many who read this post would have been in diapers the day this ocurred. The date was Thursday, January 20, 1983. If you can read the date on the clipping, you will see it is Friday's paper and the picture was taken before sunrise that morning.



I know you can't read the print. Basically, there was an ice storm Thursday. It rained most of the day and was getting colder and colder. By mid-afternoon everything was freezing. All the trees had ice and limbs were beginning to break off. After dark it became much worse. A power pole with THREE transformers (probably not a good idea) fell on two mail jeeps and crushed one pretty well. The jeep on the right in this picture was the one I drove and it was crushed on the driver's side (right) so that the roof was resting on the seat. The clocks stopped in the Post Office when the pole fell indicating that it was less than an hour after I had parked it and left for the day. We DID deliver mail on Friday, but not much arrived from Birmingham because they were iced in worse than we were. Trees and power lines were down everywhere. It is amazing how much we take for granted. I parked near that power pole day after day without any thought of it falling on the vehicle before that day. Also, this occasion is one reminder that older folks have seen many cycles in weather patterns similar to recent years. But in those days, such events were mostly local news. There were no 24 hour news channels competing to have the latest from everywhere. Don't be fooled by proponents of global warming and buying carbon credits to soothe your guilt for destroying the planet. The storms have always been with us and we "do not know from whence the wind blows".