Coleen Brooks: March

I never knew this and in truth, this didn’t happen very long ago. Can you imagine the grumblings of people when a whole new month to celebrate the new year was dropped in everyone’s lap? March was the month back in Roman times when military campaigns were started again once winter was over. I bet some people thought it was some kind of conspiracy.

So, what’s so great about March? Sure, it’s my birth month and Ron Howard’s, Opie from Andy Griffith fame. First, it is a transitional month. The winter winds are constantly in a battle with the warmer winds bringing in spring. It’s the month when tornadoes are spawned along with blizzards, even in the South. Remember the Blizzard of ’93 here in the Southeast? I mean, this was a real honest to God blizzard that happened on March 12 and 13, 1993.

I’d lived in central Kansas for a few years and blizzards were not really big deals. We kids would make tunnels in the drifts. We’d have our sleds out and ready to go from October to April. A big snow in this neck of the woods is maybe five to eight inches which melts in a few days. Not in March of 1993. The snow measured in our front yard at three feet. Right across our driveway on a curve, the drifts were five feet tall. It was amazing.

People were stranded on 1-75 and some made their way into Calhoun and were sheltered in schools and churches. We live in the country and could hear trees cracking and falling with the wind and weight of the snow. For the first time, the four kids and I got out Bill’s old Flexible Flyer sled and put it to use, not just for fun, but to haul some water and food up to a house where a mother and two children were stranded with no power or water. Her husband was stuck on the interstate with the National Guard.

That blizzard basically shut down the Southeast for a good while. The kids and I had fun while Bill was in Augusta learning to deal with PTSD. He missed it all. We had power by the grace of God, although it was live on a downed power pole that had been attached to our home.

We still talk about that storm. Lightning flashed when it first hit. Heavy rain quickly turned to heavy snow. It seemed unreal. I do love snow, but that blizzard was tough. It brought a lot of hardships to a lot of people. I’ll take the softly falling flakes that may reach five or six inches and be gone in a couple of days.

Ever heard of the March Hare? Sure you have. It’s the character who keeps on interrupting Alice in Lewis Carrol’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” when she tries to tell him about what’s happened to her. It can also refer to an animal or person who is excitable and unpredictable. You know, like being “Mad as a March Hare.” Or maybe all this happened in March.

March is also the month we all become Irish and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. My Grandpa Colligan was as Irish as they come. When our son, daughter-in-law, Bill and I were traveling in Ireland, we came up on the Colligan River. It was meandering through a farm and had dairy cows standing in it. What a beautiful sight! Yes, St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 is important to me. I wear green and may just break into an Irish ditty and do an Irish jig. Other important dates in March are International Women’s Day and it is also Women’s History month.

March is considered by some as the most unproductive month of the year. Why?? Because it is the month of the NCAA March Madness! A month when the sport of basketball is the focus of everyone’s brain. Well, maybe not everyone, but it’s the only time I watch basketball with great interest since Michael Jordan retired. And y’all Kennesaw State University right here in Georgia, just a short way down 1-75 is in the tournament for the first time! Go KSU Owls!!

And now you know about March and thanks to the World Wide Web for providing the info. The World Wide Web was started by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 in the month of…you guessed it … March!