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BY SUE STATON

Sun Columnist

If there is one topic of conversation we all can usually agree on, it is the weather. It has often been said if you do not know what to say to someone, you can start a conversation about the weather.

We often talk about how nice, how windy, how cold, or the amount of snow we receive. Every day we talk about the weather. In other words, we are not happy if it is too hot in the summer. If it is freezing cold in the winter, we start wishing for summer.

Even in spring and fall we often complain. In the spring it is too rainy and we want more dry days. We make jokes by saying, “Quack, quack during the rainy days. We joke that we are thinking about building an ark during the really rainy seasons. Spring is my favorite season because of the clean smell and newness it seem to hold. I love daffodils that pop through the ground.

Others like fall best because of the mild temperatures and the beautiful changing colors of the trees. Even in the fall, we are not happy because of the leaves falling off the trees that we have to rake.

For others, they love looking at the snow from inside and sitting by a glowing,warm, fireplace in the winter. For the farmer, it is one season they dread the most because they are feeding animals and working in the freezing cold.

I have decided to let you in on some weather superstitions I have heard in my lifetime. Of course, the wooly worm has been a good predictor of the weather. For example, if it has been more black than brown it is a predictor of a bad winter, light brown on both ends mean the winter will start out light, then get bad, and end light.

There are more about the wooly worm that I have written about but I want to get a whole lot more superstitions into this column.

I have found that “rain before 7, it will clear off before 11” to be nearly always true. If the sky is red at night, it is usually a sailor’s delight. Aching knees for me can always mean a change of weather in any season. If it is a snowy winter, fruit on trees will be plentiful in the summer. Pears and fruit usually abound on the trees after a bad winter. You would think it would be the opposite.

I found other superstitions about the weather in a book I own about dreams. I think you may enjoy this like I did.

It will be fair weather:

If, before sunrise the fields are covered with mist.

If, the clouds at sunrise fly to the west.

If, the full moon rises clear.

If, there are clouds in the east in the evening.

If, spiders work early at their webs.

The signs of bad weather:

A pale sunset.

A halo around the moon.

The creaking of furniture.

Pain in ones corns. A cricket chirping loudly.

I also heard the chirping of a cricket can be used to estimate the temperature. You are to count the number of chirps in 14 seconds; add 40 and you will have the temperature in degrees in Fahrenheit. Though I have heard this one, I cannot imagine the human who figured that one out.

Frost year is also considered a fruit year. A February spring is worth nothing, but thunder in March who betokens a fruitful year.

If there is sunshine and a shower, there will be rain again tomorrow. If a mist creeps up a hill, a fisherman should get out and try his skill. When the mist begins to nod, a fisherman should just put up his rod.

I am sure many of you have heard some of these superstitions or old wives tales like I have. The one thing I do know is the fact the weather is always a topic of conversation.

Whether we are speaking of the weather or speaking of the coronavirus, this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson seems to sum it up to me. “This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it.”

I think we just have to accept it and get through the weather or the virus the very best we can. After all, what else can we do?

Make the best of every day.

Sue Staton is a Clark County native. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother.