GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE, January 31, 2026

Good morning all, it is Saturday and we will be leaving another January behind us when this day ends. It will be cold today and for some it will be a rainy day, while many others can expect to see snow later today. I still enjoy snow as I did as a little boy, I won't lie, I become a kid once more when it snows.

But, all good things must end, so once it has been around for a day, I welcome its departure. If we folks in our region see snow, or have the topic up for discussion, someone will surely mention the "big snow," of February 9-11, of 1973. We will share our experiences from those days, telling where we were and the details were different but over all, the stories are about the same.

We loved it and we hated it, snow is wonderful but we soon enough tire of it and wish it would leave and go home...wherever snow's home might be.

The big snowstorm of February 9-11, that hit the southeast, pictured here, the courthouse square, of my hometown of Swainsboro in Emanuel County.

The forecast had no mention of snow, not even rain for that day. But the weather turned off colder, with an icy wind heralding the onset of cold rain.

I was with the rest of our First Baptist Church of Swainsboro's youth choir, "The Good News Company," as we left Swainsboro on the church bus and van headed to a stay at the 4-H youth camp at Georgia's Rock Eagle, for a Baptist youth choir competition to be held there. Not long after we departed Swainsboro, the rain started, and the temperature fell slowly but steadily.

Icicles began forming on the surfaces of the bus outside our windows. Then the freezing rain became snow, and then heavy wet snow. We made it there but the snow did not let up until the late afternoon. We had fun running and just enjoying that winter wonderland, in that hilly and scenic place. At day's end, we had trampled the entire area, and it was sad to turn in for the night, knowing we would leave next morning and the pristine snow of the morning before was worse for the wear.

But, it started snowing again, and in the morning the entire area was afresh with new snow. The other choirs were given the okay to travel home by the Georgia State Patrol, but us and the Hawkinsville choir were advised to stay because our roads home were very bad. The staff stayed to cook, clean and make our prolonged stay a joyful one indeed. We used lunchroom trays for sleds, and just had a ball in general.

When we did head home, the roads were lined with cars, pickups, and semi-trucks that had slid into each other or off of the road and were stuck. Our route took us though the area where there was a lot of ice beneath the snow. It had snowed generally about eighteen to twenty-four inches and the snow did not melt completely for days.

One thing that the snow storm changed was the rarity of four wheel drive pickups and vehicles in our region. Back then four wheel drive vehicles were scarce, and those who had them were asked to help get milk to babies, medicines to the ill, take healthcare workers to the hospitals and doctor's offices, and convey folks to and fro as needed. Daddy had a new Ford Bronco he bought for us kids to use and he volunteered to take those errands on as did the others in the area who had four wheel drive.

Our Bronco was burnt orange, a Ranger with factory air, automatic transmission and and 302 V8. Daddy bought it for us boys to replace the brown 1972 one we had with the 6 cylinder, that my brother Joe wrecked.

After that, the four wheel drive vehicle had a population explosion, and four wheel drive became the rule rather than the exception. It happened almost overnight. Look around today and you see they are so very common now, unlike then. That weather system was similar to other occasions when we got blanketed with snow, where our weather comes from the west-northwest, and if it is a snow maker for folks above and to our west (left) the systems generally run into warmer air from the coast as it moves inland.

Because of that, we see little or no snow, only rain. But that one and a few less powerful systems like it are a different phenomena, in that the system coming to us from the northwest is dry but very cold, and it collides with moist air streaming to us from the coast, and those can be big snowmakers indeed. Those systems bring snow to the south first, in Florida or south Georgia and then move up to us.

Watch out for those, because they are a horse of a different color! I hope today is a good and fun one for each of you, and please know that because of many of you we can afford to stay warm at home with no worry of the power bill coming soon. God is amazing, and God's people have that goodness that He imparts to their hearts. Thank you. Thank you. The boyz say hey.

NUMBERS 6: 24-26, KJV

we boyz three, babee conway, lil merle, & me