Published: October 21, 2009 09:07 am      

GARY'S WORLD: Fifty years of weather predicting tradition

For those who know me, it is no secret that I love the "olden days" and community history. The stories and people are often rich with character and charm. My wife and I often say to each other that we couldn't have picked a better place to make our home than Cumberland County Tennessee.

In this issue of the Chronicle you can read one of my favorite, homespun, folklore community features the Chronicle publishes every year — Melinda Lane Hedgecoth's winter weather prediction.

It's the prediction of the coming winter based on the observation of signs of nature.

This isn't just some kind of folksy fun, though. These signs of nature that the old timers used to predict the coming winter were important. These signs and this art form were handed down generation to generation. Melinda learned the signs and how to read them from her mother, Crab Orchard resident Helen Lane. Helen learned them from her father, Charley Sherrill, who undoubtedly learned them from his parents.

It was Helen Lane, though, who became famous nationwide for predicting the winter based on the signs of nature. It occurred to me that with so many new people to the area, many may not know the story of origin on how this winter prediction came to be an annual tradition in the Chronicle.

In fact, it was 50 years ago this fall in 1959 Helen made that first off-the-cuff prediction which sparked her fame.

Helen was a Crab Orchard correspondent for the Chronicle beginning in the early 1940s. She took over the column from her mother, Bertha Holloway Sherrill.

On Sept. 17, 1959 in the Crossville Chronicle's Crab Orchard Happenings column, Helen Lane said everyone had better fill their coal and wood bins full for the upcoming winter. It was going to be a humdinger! She reported she had counted 12 heavy, August fogs, which denoted 12 heavy snows for the coming winter. Helen reported the "spiders and crickets were numerous and corn husks were very thick."

In fact, that winter, 60 inches of snow were recorded and 14 snowfalls — 12 of them were six or more inches of snow. The students in Cumberland County schools had to make up more than 13 days of missed school.

The Chronicle editor at the time, Donald Brookhart, remembered Helen's article and reported it in his column on the front page of the Chronicle Feb. 25, 1960.

He wrote, "We had a prediction come true by one of our correspondents last fall."

Brookhart sent a copy of it to the Nashville Tennesseean and they in turn wrote a story on it that went nationwide via UPI and AP newswires.

On March 24, 1960 Brookhart wrote in his column that Helen Lane had since been featured in numerous daily newspapers across the country over her prediction.

Melinda said after that her mother was contacted every year either to give her winter prediction, or to feature her in a story.

Melinda said there were reporters at their house every fall beginning in early September for the next 40 years wanting her mother's prediction.

"We grew up being used to television crews and newspaper reporters at our house all the time. We'd come home from school to find Don Welch of Channel 9 (who was the weatherman at that station at the time) in our living room, or Margie Ison, the weather lady from Channel 10 at Knoxville...," she said.

From there Helen's story spread like wildfire. She was featured in numerous newspapers, magazines and TV shows over the years including Life Magazine, Southern Living and she was featured on the Today Show in 1979.

Melinda said her mother was even invited to be on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in the '60s, but was unable to make it because she came down ill with the flu.

Melinda remembered, "It really didn't sink in how famous she had become though until we were on vacation in Virginia and were standing in line to go into Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello when a lady in line heard us talking and asked about our accent and where we were from. After hearing Tennessee, she asked if we knew Ms. Lane from Crab Orchard. I don't know who was more blown away — her because she discovered she was talking to Ms. Lane's family — or my children, who couldn't believe somebody that far from home was inquiring about their Mamaw!"

In 1998, David Spates, who was then assistant editor of the Chronicle, went to Helen's home and wrote an article about Helen and Melinda working together and writing that year's weather prediction. The article was noticed by the Tennessean, they in turn had a feature story and Time Magazine came out and interviewed Helen and Melinda and featured them in a story.

Helen, who was ill with terminal cancer, passed away in February 2000. Melinda has since continued the tradition of writing the winter weather prediction based on the signs of nature and remains close to her mother's spirit and heart.

This craft is something that has captivated my interest as well as my children. Over the years we have come to learn the signs of nature through Melinda's predictions and through talking with her.

I have counted the morning fogs in August, watched for woolly worms, taken note of where the hornets are building their nests and observed how heavy the mass crop of acorns and nuts are each year. We talk about the signs with each other and have developed a great friendship.

My children tell me about the signs of nature they see and we compare observations. I always pass those onto Melinda, who tells me what she has seen, or what her family and friends have seen.

What continues to amaze me year after year is the accuracy of this style of weather prediction. More often than not it is accurate.

Keeping with tradition, when I called Melinda enquiring about her winter weather prediction a couple of weeks ago, she said, "Mama always gave her prediction to the Chronicle first. That's the way I will continue it. The Chronicle will always get my prediction first."

This year's prediction features some of the writings of Helen Lane. Helen's words describing her own mother and the home they shared in the days gone by of Crab Orchard are simply beautiful. I never did have the pleasure of meeting Helen, but through reading some of her old writings in the Chronicle and clippings Melinda has shared with me, it's easy to see she was one of the richest characters in Cumberland County history.

So, 50 years later, the same signs of nature and folklore are being used by Helen's daughter, Melinda, to bring our readers the annual winter prediction.