Like many of you, I never thought I would live long enough to see what we have seen this week here around Thomas County. Seeing our deep south Georgia community blanketed with 5” (more in some spots) of real, snow is still honestly hard for me to wrap my head around.

There were some hints the previous week that what we witnessed might happen but with a heavy emphasis on ‘might’. The expert weather folks kept trying to remind us that it would take a near-perfect alignment of several different atmospheric factors for it to become reality, and much to our chagrin all along they kept trying to be less than committal about it happening at all. They kept trying, but none of us wanted to hear anything tinged with reason.

After all, it’s not like we’ve had inches and inches of snow here before.

Now with that said, it’s also not like we haven’t ever had any snow here before either. Back in 1973, there was enough snow for people to build snowmen (though not very tall). In 1975, we had another good dusting of snow, just enough to cover the ground. We had a bit of snow on Christmas day back in 1989, and a good bit back about eight or so years ago as well.

But the watermark for all snow events here locally happened back in February of 1958, when Thomas County got a record 2.3 inches of snow that pretty much shut everything down around here.

Needless to say, what we just witnessed rewrote the record books and shut everything down again.

It started becoming clear Tuesday that all of those necessary elements were going to align and bring us the first serious snow we’ve perhaps ever really had, with some models showing us getting 4 or so inches.

But even then there was part of me thinking ‘there’s no way’ regarding it being something really, truly historic.

Social media started reporting flurries up around Albany around 5 p.m. or so, and all of the weather sites were saying it would be around 6 p.m. before it started coming down here. After that, every five minutes I was staring out our windows just waiting for some kind of confirmation that this was truly happening (admit it – you did, too).

At about 6:15, that confirmation arrived with the first few flurries. But it wasn’t long before those flurries turned into legit and steady snow, and I could hardly believe my eyes. I couldn’t help myself – I had to get out in it. So I, along with Ransom and Marion Rose, proceeded to bundle up in multiple layers and go outside and experience something none of us had ever experienced.

For the first time in my now 61 years, I made and threw a snowball. The kids made snow angels on the ground for the first time in their lives. The three of us built a tiny snowman on the hood of my truck. I’ve never built a snowman of any kind before. We stayed out for an hour or so, but when the temperature started dropping we all headed back to the warmth of inside.

There is something magical about watching snow fall like that. And it kept falling, and falling, and falling. I watched and watched, finally checking just before midnight to find we were at just over 3 inches. Armed with the knowledge that we were seeing something historic unfold, I went to bed.

Waking up to see everything completely covered in a white blanket of real snow was surreal. I bundled up again and stepped out, and could not believe how deep the snow was as I walked around the yard. We incredibly ended up with over 5 inches totaled.

Throughout the day photos of families out playing in it started piling up on social media. I have to say of all of the things associated with this event that might be my favorite: seeing entire families outside playing together in the snow. No kids sitting in front of a stupid TV playing a video game or everybody holed up in their rooms staring at their phones – everybody was out making lifetime memories, all face to face and arm in arm. The smiles on the faces of kids and old folks looked the same, and seeing that did my heart good.

Maybe there’s a lesson we should all learn from that fact.

Now as I sit here writing this looking out at the accumulated snow finally melting away, I do have to say that as magical as it was to experience it I can also honestly say I can see how people who deal with this all of the time could get tired of it very quickly. And let’s be honest – we folks here in the Deep South just are not equipped to deal with 5” of snow in any way.

It was special, it was beautiful even – but after three days of it, I was ready for it to be gone.

Regardless, it’s not often you get to say you’ve lived through something truly historic, and there’s no doubt every single one of us in Thomas County can say that we now have.