A major winter storm is making its way up the east coast. Six to ten inches of snow is expected in the New York City area with 14 inches possible in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Not to be outdone, the Midwest is shivering through the arrival of another low-pressure system, which is bringing low temperatures and snow to that part of the country. Sounds pretty bad, but residents of the East and Midwest won't get much sympathy from commentator Laura Lorson.
The People of Minnesota or the upper peninsula or Maine all talk about their winter woes. But I have to tell you they've got nothing on the central plains. True, I grew up in a place where my dad with mother awed its brutal under his breath when it got to be 40 degrees but seriously, we don't have a big ice fishing tradition, but that doesn't mean that you can't spit and have it freeze before it hits the ground out here. Our notable feature out here is the wind. It's constant. It's mindless.It's vicious. Kids who have trouble with their times tables nonetheless learn how to calculate wind chill readings in their heads. The wind feels vindictive. And it's hard not to think of it as having evil, personal, angry intent. It's completely normal to hear perfectly rational people screaming:"Stop it" at the wind as they try to walk in the winter time. Native Kansans invariably have a whole set of gruesome horrifying stories about grandparents who got caught out in an unexpected blizzard and had to, I don't know, spend the night in a haystack, or eat gravel when they got stuck in a snow drift or something. For the life of me I can not figure out the pioneers who got out here, took a look around and decided "Yup. this is the place." Blistering nightmarishly hot summers; brutal, punishing winters ,one week of fall, one week of spring. "Yeah this is great. Sign me up."
We also have the added benefit of frequent ice storms. Laurance, Kansas is contrary to public perception ,a town of very steep hills. So you need to be comfortable with the sensation of ice skating if you want to get anywhere in the winter. This also means that we're prone to cancel school. When I was the local host of morning edition, long stretches of winter weather made me a total celebrity with everyone in town under the age of 16. The downside of this is that I actually had to get to the radio station in order to be the vioce of winter authority closing schools right and left. The upside is that I used to get fan mail from second graders. "You cancel school, you rock. Can you get me out of my English test on wendesday? ". I take the calls from the pragmatic ,laconic ultra-low tech schools superintendents."No school for town in Narxi couldn't get them out of drive way. No school for prairie village can't see it in my deck " I missed being the one curled up in bed listening to the radio praying, praying. "Let my school be next. Let today be the day I can stay in out of the wind. Let today be a day for coco and soup and daytime television and reading in bed." The prayer of kids in every state, whether it's a traditional winter weather power house or just plain Kansas.
Laura Lorson is the local All Things Considered host, at Kansas public radio in Laurance, where the forecast low tonight is 15 with gusty winds out of the North.
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