Monday, January 2, 2017

my mama said...

...though it sounds like a quote from "Forest Gump" the Tom Hanks movie, Hollywood is not the source. This is most definitely something I often heard as a kid. Though I have recently written about several amusing southern sayings that seemed to be specific to my mom, this is not one of those colloquialisms.

She likely heard this from a friend or farming person and after testing it for herself, believed it to be true. A homemade/countryfied method for weather prognostication: She believed you could keep notes about the weather conditions for the last six days of December, and the first six of the following January to determine what the new year would bring. Any attempts I have made to test the validity met with complete failure. Primarily due to not thinking about this theory until maybe a day or two before the end of the year, when it would be too late to make notes counting back six days to start at Dec. 26.  And if you have waited until half way into that twelve day window, the opportunity to determine the veracity of the idea has passed you by.

You might think to yourself  'that is not going to work' and say 'there is no way making notes about conditions for twelve days running will provide an accurate prediction'. But here's the thing - it is different every where. You might be keeping a running calendar by sticking your head out the window on a given day to know what to anticipate month by month. And then find yourself disappointed and surprised that your note taking was from naught. Possibly - but you need to realize that a humongous variety of weather conditions occur at various places on our planet. All at the same time, but with any number of different situations around the globe in various latitudes and climates.

Yes. You are right. That is crazy talk. And Yes, my mom was right, too!

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