Weather

For as long as I can remember, weather conditions have been an important topic of conversation in our family. During my childhood years my family lived in a small farming community in Iowa. It was a river town with shops catering to the many farms dotting the rolling hills of Iowa. Corn was the predominate crop and one could drive for miles and miles and see only rows of corn. During the growing season, the green stalks would be 'knee high by the 4^th of July'. By the first frosty days of autumn, the stalks would be higher than a mans head with tops of golden silk glistening in the sun.

My family lived on a small asparagus farm. Besides the 7 acres of asparagus, we had huge beds of black berries, raspberries, strawberries and numerous bee hives. We had farm animals, cows, hogs and chickens, but on a smaller scale than our farming neighbors. You can imagine how important it was to be aware of weather changes. Listening to the noon time radio broadcasts giving weather and stock prices was part of the lunch time ritual.

Exchanged letters with farming relatives in other states always included information about the weather and its' affect on the crops they grew, tobacco in Kentucky, wheat and corn in Kansas. During the years that we lived on the asparagus farm Dad continued his job with the telephone company. The phone company had transferred the family several times during his early years with the company, but we lived in our little river town for a number of years. It looked to be permanent, but when the company asked, and offered, a transfer from Iowa to San Francisco, the family left farming behind.

As my brothers and sisters married and moved to areas where their careers took them, I too found myself far removed from the daily concerns of an agricultural life. But rather than harvesting corn, milking cows and feeding chickens, I indulge in amateur gardening. I like propagating African violets, sprouting avocado seeds, and raising geraniums in hanging baskets. A small container garden is my pretense to owning farming genes passed on to me from parents and grandparents. As far as weather went, I only paid attention, in a hap-hazard way, to reports of weather temperature and rain fall.

Now global warming is forcing us to think about how to deal with climate change. Weather reports are more important than ever, and not just for farmers. The erratic and extreme weather patterns are playing havoc around the globe. Floods and tornadoes are causing destruction matching that of war torn areas where masses of humanity are fleeing war. It may be a dollar late, and a dollar short, but climate change is a crisis we can't afford to ignore. Hopefully our politicians will begin to publicize and plan for ways to help us live with the changes as they happen.