The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1940-09-19
Today
AND
Tomorrow
Ely
Frank Parker StOckridge

WEATHER beliefs
After Winter of heavy snow
up in my country, we've had a
Summer of unusually heavy
rains. AS usual, the country folk
have their own explanation for
the unusual extremes of weather.
! The most interesting one I have
| heard was given by an old lady,
whose age is a bit of a mystery
but who is certainly close to a
hundred years old.
It's the airplanes that cause the
SHOWS and rains. They climb up
through the clouds and make
holes in them, which let the snow
and rain come down, that other
wise would be held up in the sky!
The amazing thing about that
theory is that my wife has heard
several other old people give the
same reason for the weather of
the past year.
I imagine that it has always
been the case that old people
blame any uncommon phenome-
ma upon whatever is new and un-
familiar to them. When gunpow-
der first began to be used in
European wars, the old records
indicate that people blamed the
cannon fire for bad weather. In
the Napoleonic wars English
country folks said the gunfire
ruined their crops. Probably
some still believe that.
FROST damage
I haven't yet heard any anna,
teur weather sharp try to ex-
plain the cause of the killing
frost we had up here in the hills
in late August, but I've heard ole
folks speak of the tales theil
grandfathers used to tell of the
year eighteen hundred anc
froze-to-death." That was 1916
when there was frost every
month in the year all over New
England. / used to hear my
grandparents talk about it wher
was boy.
The greatest damage this Aug.
ust's frost did was, curiously
enough, to the vegetable gardens
which had been planted to pro-
vide food for war sufferers ir
Europe. Every town in the coun'
try had it's patch of several &C
res, tended by volunteer work
ers, and the women began, a:
soon as the first vegetables were
ready, to can them for eventua
shipment to Europe.
Our towns quota was five
thousand cans. Some set theil
goal at ten thousand. None O.
them will make their quotas, fo-
I understand every garden il
the country was hit by the frost
Some of us had been wondering
anyway, how the ladies were go
ing to get their canned goods t.
Belgium, France and othe
! places.
ROAnc unSaf,
, Except on level prairies ant
desert lands, the roads built b.
our pioneer ancestors followed
cowpaths or Indian trails, or raj
When we began to build mo
tor roads most states and coun
ties followed the old highways
with all their twists and curves
1t is only within the past tel
, years that the systematic elimi
nation of highway curves has be
gun. Not until they are al
Strengthened out will traffic IL
modern high-speed cars begin t.
be safe. Speeding around curve
causes more deaths than any 9th
4 er traffic hazard.
The same is true of railroads
The only great railroad acciden
in more than a year occurred be
cause an engineer took a curv
at too high speed. The late E. H
Hartman once told me that /
he could spend eight billion dol
lars he could make all railroad
: safe and double their capacity
We are spending fifteen billion
in war preparations. That sun
would make every motor roa'
safe.
DRIVERS careles
; After all, no highway is an.
safer than the drivers who rul
their cars over it. The smoothe
the road the greater the tempta
ton to speed and to get careless
Within five miles of my house il
the past week three people hav
died and five have been sent t.
hospitals because the people VIII