Opinion

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature

Friday, April 13, 2007

The recent record breaking cold snap has upset our spring plans. Two memorable sayings came to mind after this deep freeze spoiled our expected warm April. The first and most famous was penned for a television commercial. The second proverb, came from a famous local Sheriff and businessman.

From 1971 to 1979, there was a television commercial that became a part of our American culture and vernacular. Chiffon Margarine was one of the first soft margarine spreads. Anderson Clayton and Company, the makers of the margarine, decided to increase the public's awareness of their product with television advertising.

The legendary ad that resulted became one of our most popular commercials. Dena Dietrich, a well respected actress, starred in these 30-second broadcasts.

Dressed in a white gown and adorned with a crown of daisies, she portrayed the part of "Mother Nature." As she holds a tub of the spread, an unseen voice tells her "That's Chiffon Margarine, not butter."

Dena then replies, "Margarine, oh no, it's too sweet, too creamy." That's when the commercial made television history. The unseen voice replies, "Chiffon's so delicious, I guess it fooled even you, Mother Nature."

Ms. Deithrich then gets this menacing look on her face.

She stretches out her arms, which seems to initiate lightning and thunder, and shouts "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."

For you readers who use the Internet, you can Google this famous phrase and see pictures from this commercial.

Bob Gast, former Vernon County sheriff and local nursery businessman, also had some sage advice about spring and nature. For many years, Bob had all kinds of plants for sale each spring. More than once, I remember hearing him tell one of his customers, "if you plant this before Easter, you're just going to have to come back and buy it again after the frost gets it!"

Actually, Bob was wrong more than he was right. Most springs, we get lucky with our weather. By the time baseball arrives, Vernon County has a decent chance of missing a "killing frost." Bob was right to give the warning though. It is a year like this one that makes us all regret our attempt to fool mother nature with early plantings.

The worst part of this story, is that we may not be out of the woods just yet. I spent a little time at the Library on Tuesday. In May of 1976, there is this sad picture of Allen Laflen, a long-time Vernon County farmer, baling what is left of his wheat crop.

Baling, because of a killing frost. On the night of May 3 and into the morning of the 4th, the temperature in Nevada dropped to 28 degrees.

That cold snap cost our local farmers their entire wheat crops, and if they had anything else up and growing, it failed as well. The cold snap was so devastating, that some large trees were killed.

I have not seen the actual newspaper from May of 1963, but NOAA, our government climate service, states that the low May temperature for Nevada, Mo., was set that year. The low in May of 1963 was 27 degrees.

The trouble with weather, is that it is a lot like Bob Gast's adage. We can look back at the past and see the terrible weather of bygone days. When it comes to late spring killing frosts, there are quite a few that have made the record books. This past weekend's damages may not even be completely known as yet.

Still most years, we all get our dose of "spring fever," about the last week or so of March.

Everywhere you go you will see people planting trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetable gardens. I don't know what the odds are. Most of the time you likely will have a four out of five chance of not losing anything to cold, or it may be even better. The one's we remember, however, are the ones like this year. The kind of cold snap that breaks our hearts just as much as it kills the plant life itself.

Life is a lot like spring. Most of the time we go along from day to day without thinking too much about the dangers that are ahead. Human's by nature are mostly optimistic. If we were not so it would be a pretty bleak life we lead.

But troubles will come just as sure as a killing frost comes every few years. Not the thunder and lightning of Chiffon's Mother Nature, or the warnings of a plant salesman like Bob Gast, keep us from trying and striving.

Go ahead and do it all again. Make the best of what you have to work with. Like Allen Laflen did with his wheat. He made the best of a bad situation. Mother Nature has a curve or two awaiting us all, but it's how we deal with it that makes all the difference.

Which way will you go, "butter or margarine?"