The Four Seasons (and no, I'm not Speaking of the Talented Singing Group)

Other than two summers spent in beautiful Ohio, a few trips to Alabama, one to Jamaica, a journey to Canada and the occasional trip to Texas, I have spent my entire life in Louisiana. That life has not been a long one, I admit, but I am sure that a period of 25 years should be sufficient to account for any abnormalities in the normal way of things. In those 25 years I have come to realize that Louisiana is blessed (and cursed) by a lack of something that other states (every other state in fact) take for granted. Four Seasons.

My friends who live in Ohio year round tell me that not only do they enjoy the occasional summer day with temperatures over 100, but also the yearly snow (sometimes several feet deep). My extended family that reside in Alabama have tales every year of swimming in the local lakes come summer, strolling through the woods in light jackets in the fall as the leaves change, being snowed in at least once nearly every year, as well as the mild spring as the flowers come back. Hell, even my friend from Arizona (why haven't you moved home yet, Amanda) enjoys multiple seasons and she's in the middle of the desert!

Louisiana (for those that don't live here, or haven't lived here long) does not have four seasons. We have (to be generous) two and a half. As my readership continues to expand (I have several readers now that live in other parts of the country) I thought it would be nice (and educational) to layout the yearly schedule we cajuns (and would be cajuns) endure.

1. Summer -- Summer, for most people, means ice cream, baseball, swimming, and vacation. For Louisianians Summer means sweat, mosquitoes, droughts, 100+ degrees for four+ months, and (if we're very lucky) hurricanes. That's right the uncomfortable humidity and temperature are not signs enough from God that our location displeases Him, we also get tropical storms to cement the idea. 1 Season

2. Fall -- Oh, we do have a fall, although you almost couldn't tell it, by the changing of the leaves, since paper companies have left us with almost nothing but pine trees. Unlike the fall that the rest of the world (short of Saharan Africa, and Antarctica) experience, ours does not last. We get one week (two if there has been a bad hurricane) of cooler temperatures and low humidity. One week to relieve us from the Summer heat and prepare us for... 1/4 Season

3. Winter -- Winter, we get, in full force even. What we don't get is snow. You know the pretty part of Winter, we skip that. Winter in Louisiana is like this, humidity (impossibly) higher than in the summer so that even at a normal temperature like the low 50's the wind stings your skin, rain for about five months, occasionally it's freezing rain, and once every four or five years for one night we get snow, it lasts approximately an hour on the ground. Winter is cold, monotonous, and long. 1 Season

4. Spring -- No one in the world is happier to see Winter end than those of us in Louisiana. That first temperate day, when the sun comes out and laying in the grass sunbathing you can almost imagine Winter never happened, is one of the most pleasant days of the year. The problem is it's only accompanied by about six more (14 total if we're lucky). Spring is welcomed but only because we always forget that it leads us right back into Summer. 1/4 Season

So in summation we sweat four 5 months, we sing for a week, we freeze and drip for five months, and then we sunbathe for a week. That, my friends, is the 2 1/2 Seasons of Louisiana. Call your travel guide today, if you book quickly you might make it for the week of fall!