Spring is spring.
I saw a meme (more than once) and it lists other seasons beside the four that are normally down on paper.
There is Fake Summer. Third Winter also made the list. Then there was Real Spring and it concluded with Real Summer forever and ever.
I need to add something in here about the Fury of the Mother.
The Class 2A State Track Meet understands this a little too well.
There was a mother there creating trouble. Not the mother that runs down the bleachers to video tape their child running the 100 Meter.
But a different kind of Mother.
This Mother showed up at Gurdon on Tuesday.
This Mother brought the rain. This Mother made it pour. This Mother blew team tents into the next county. This Mother broke team tents.
This Mother controlled the track meet.
After a seven-hour delay, it was going to be back to order. Some athletes had already won state titles. As a matter of fact, one kid that I know had already captured two medals.
All of the athletes were stretching and doing the normal things after a bus ride to get ready for the meet again.
Then there was an uneasy delay.
Despite Mother Nature already leaving, she pulled a couple of tricks on her way out.
Her bolts of lightning appeared to have hit the scoreboard and the timing system. So after trying to get it up and running, the school had to postpone the meet.
This isn’t the first time that a weather situation has occurred on the state track.
When my wife was principalling in Green Forest, she had to work hundreds of track meets at the school.
There were two junior high meets and two senior high meets and bunches of junior high and senior district meets.
The day had finally came during the first week of May and it was time for the track meet to be held at Green Forest.
Then the Mother came.
She didn’t bring rain. She didn’t bring wind.
She brought sleet and snow — measurable sleet and snow.
It was always funny to see the boys that wore the shorty shorts to run in for the events. That was not the case on this day. With a temperature hovering around 28 degrees all day, state track meet hoodies were a big deal.
My role as newspaper reporter turned from taking pictures, to cornering the Carroll County market on hot chocolate.
I was the most popular guy in the high school again. I handed out the hot chocolate and got a good column out of the day some 20 years later.
Oh Mother Nature, please let us have a good week during state tournaments and during the regional fair. Jeff Brasel is the sports and managing editor and general manager of the Newton County Times. E-mail him at sports@newtoncountytimes.com or follow him at X.com/jeffbrasel.
