Off The Cuff: 12-7-06

Off The Cuff appears weekly in The Calhoun Chronicle. You can see this and past installments online at www.calhounchronicle.com.

Last Friday, it was possible to stand at the thermometer and, literally, watch the temperature fall. A day that reached tempera-tures above 70 degrees, had temperatures that evening below freezing. A drastic change in less than 24 hours.

Although the official start of winter is more than two weeks away, the dropping temperatures before the Christmas holiday bring to mind snowy images of Christmases past. Those of us who are willing to date ourselves remember winter seasons that were nearly always white, with ground that was buried beneath multiple layers of snow, ice and sleet.

I remember a year when we received two inches of snow, followed by a day of sleet, which froze on top of the snow. More snow fell, than another day of sleet, then more snow. As a child, I stood on the top layer, and with a small bounce, broke through the frozen layer to the next section of snow. My father, walking out to shovel the driveway, would break through the various layers, struggling to reach his destination.

I remember another year when high winds blew across the snowy fields of the Marietta suburbs, making “snow rollers”–a rare phenomenon. Once the initial “seed” of the roller is started by the high wind, it begins to roll, collecting additional snow from the ground as it rolls along, leaving trails behind it. It was as if invisible children had played in the fields in the night, leaving behind not a single footprint.

One year, the snow-covered ground was coated with a full day of flurries, and when night fell, the street lights and Christmas lights shimmered and sparkled, as if the ground had been scattered with miniature diamonds. My mother and I walked around the block that night, not to see the Christmas decorations, but to watch the world glitter and glow as if the stars themselves had settled in the snow.

I remember one year we let our dog, a Chihuahua, outside for a break, and when she left the porch, she disappeared. We had to shovel out a space in the yard where she could do her business. Another year, we had to shovel snow on building rooftops to keep the beams from collapsing.

To think, some Calhoun children have never seen more than an inch of snow.

I always dream of a white Christmas, not only because my best childhood Christmas memories were white, but also because a white Christmas seems so rare any more. No one wishes for a red-clay mud Christmas, though sometimes it seems that’s all we get anymore.

The Farmer’s Almanac barely gives hint to the possibility of a white Christmas this year, noting, “Winter temperatures will be slightly below normal, on average, with near-normal snowfall. The coldest temperatures will be around Christmas and in early, mid, and late January and early February.”

Of course, our “near-normal snowfall,” looking at the past several years, could mean “none.”

The song, White Christmas, is ranked as the most famous and popular of all the Christmas songs. I think this is because so many of us really do dream of a white Christmas, just like those ones we used to know.

May the days of this holiday season be merry and bright, and may this, and all our Christmases, be white.

This Week’s Off The Cuff

This installment and archives are available at www.calhounchronicle.com.

Frank and I went camping this past weekend, exposing ourselves to the first below-freezing temperatures of the season. Of 66 campsites on the grounds, only two others were taken–all of us camping in tents. Even the campground attendants thought we were crazy.

I have a hard time explaining why we go on these adventures. We do it because we think that survival skills are important skills to have. We do it because we are forced, by nature and environ-ment, to work together to keep warm, fed, and comfortable. We do it because it takes us away from everyday life and brings us closer together.

We do it because we believe it makes us better people–not only for immediate stress relief, but also because we are practicing our skills for planning, preparing, and being responsible for our own enjoyment, comfort and survival.

If you forget something, or overlook something while pre-paring for a camping trip, you could freeze, or starve, or be eaten alive by bugs. If you discuss how to build a fire for too long, you get cold. If you don’t strategically plan the placement of the tent, you won’t sleep well. If you don’t clean up your mess before night-fall, you’ll be raided by raccoons and bears. If you don’t read the directions on the lantern, you could get burned, or start a forest fire.

If you aren’t prepared for everything that could possibly happen, at the very least, you won’t be comfortable; at worst, you could die.

Because of our planning, forethought, and preparation, Frank and I survive cold freezing weekends just as well as sunny week-ends. We weren’t always so practiced, but now, because we prepare for the worst no matter what the weather forecast, we can survive whatever comes our way.

You can’t throw a bunch of food and gear in the back of the truck and go. You can’t muddle your way through a camping trip. You can’t survive in the woods by giving less than 100 percent.

There are times when I would like to pack up several prominent leaders of our community, give them the necessary gear, and drop them off in the woods for a weekend. You know, force them to work together for their survival.

You can’t survive in the woods on words. Your survival is a direct result of your own actions. Life in the rest of the world should be much the same.

The skills needed to survive a camping trip are skills that   can be used in any situation. Planning, preparation and self-sustainability are useful traits–for personal living, business, and even government. Responsibility for our own actions, gear, warmth, food and survival is important in every facet of life.

Sometimes it seems we need to be stuck in the woods to truly comprehend how weak our survival skills are.

Challenge yourself. You may not want to camp outside when it’s below freezing, but you can challenge yourself to be a thorough planner, to be prepared for anything that comes your way, to be responsible for yourself, your actions, your survival.

These skills are essential for healthy living and a prosperous community, even when you aren’t in the woods.