A freeze warning was issued for Troy and Pike County from 2 p.m. Tuesday until 8 a.m. today. But the turn in the weather was expected by those who know there’s always a cold snap right before Easter.
Ronnie Atwell, Betty Sanders and Ann Collins said it’s true.
“So it must be so,” Hassie Green said laughing.
Green is director of the Troy Nutrition Center and she said participants at the center are usually “right on” with the knowledge that has been passed down to them by people who lived close to the earth.
“People used to watch for signs in nature, and you can usually count on what they learned to be right,” Green said. “I’ve heard all my life that there will be a cold snap right before Easter, and I’ve found that to be true. I don’t know why that happens, but I’ve heard that it has a biblical reference … it’s a reminder to us that Jesus is alive and God is in control.”
The ladies all agreed that the cold snap is probably Old Man Winter sending one blast of cold air before the fickle, but lovely, Miss Spring throws her colorful cloak over the land.
“You better know that the cold snap is coming before Easter,” Atwell said. “But you can tell when spring is here for good. When the dogwood trees are in full bloom, it won’t freeze again.”
Sanders said Good Friday is the day to plant spring gardens but Collins said her father never planted Irish potatoes until after Easter “on account of the cold snap.”
Dot Harrison is a firm believer in the old wives’ tales and she keeps a sweater on the back of the chair because she knows the cold snap is coming.
As for the forecast of a freeze before Easter, Harrison said she’s not so sure.
“I’ve been watching for the pecan trees to bud out because it won’t freeze after the pecan trees bud out,” she said. “I know a man who’s way up in age, and he said he’s been watching the weather all his life and he’s never seen it freeze after the pecans trees bud out. But, there’s always a first time. I know from my own experience that there will be a cold snap before Easter.”
Ceil Sikes agreed that there is no doubt about a cold snap before Easter.
She said her grandmother said there always will be cold snap before Easter, and it doesn’t matter whether Easter comes early or late. If Easter came in July, there would still be a cold snap.
“She told us not to put up our winter coats because we would have to get them out again right before Easter,” Sikes said. “She was always right.”