Blog 3758 – 02.24.2026

Two Foot of Snow Versus Daffodils 

The northeast gets two foot of snow and we in southeast Texas get daffodils. The weather prognosticators say winter is over for the Houston area and the azaleas and daffodils seem to agree.

We may very well have seen our last dip down into the high thirties till next December. My mother would have loved that. Winter was always her least favorite season in Chattanooga, except for Christmas. She loved Christmas.

My dear Mama, was the first love of my life and had I had the power I would have happily degreed that winter only came like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. The last several years of my working life I spent working on the road in Wyoming, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska where the winters, are longer, colder, and much snowier. I loved it, but my Mama would not have. All four of the women I married spent most of their lives in the South and did not care much for the colder months of the year. A lot of people will answer spring, summer, or fall when asked their favorite season. And of the three, I think the most likely grouping of votes would be spring in the lead followed by fall, and then summer. 

Growing up in Chattanooga as a boy I got used to having four pretty equal seasons unlike Houston where I have now spent most of my life and where summer seems to last from early March till almost Christmas and Spring and Fall are both very brief and winter is usually just a footnote. Remarkably, I recall several winters here when we not only did not experience a freeze, but not even a frost. The clover grew a foot high those years.

I miss the snow and the chill of winter, but love the flowers of spring too much to grieve long over winter’s passing. I am reminded of the phrase that comforts most folks when going through a difficult time or their least favorite season, “This too shall pass.” In Houston, Texas  and every other city and state where I have spent time (I have been in all fifty states and eleven other countries) I have heard the locals who think their weather very unpredictable say, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change.” 

My younger brother Robert when he was little was the sweetest child (He is still a sweet man. When our mother would say longingly about this time of year, “Spring is just around the corner,” Robert taking her words quite literally would reply, “Let’s go get it.”

Spring is here, take heart you folks still shoveling snow. Spring will soon be coming to a theatre near you.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

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