THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, HEATHER !

My UK friend and genealogy comrade always gets a chuckle over the tremendous snow falls we experience in Ohio. Oddly, I always thought that the area she comes from, Middlesbrough, which is only a hop, skip and a jump from my Grandfather Hughes' birth town--Hartlepool--both located beside the North Sea, would have the same weather as Ohio. WRONG!!!!

These towns are up in the north eastern part of England, flirting with Scotland (that "foreign" country to the north!). As with all of England, they do get soaked with rain, but they do not have the severe winters and they do not have our hot and humid summers.

I used to think that my Great Grandparents, when they immigrated in 1908 and landed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, would have been accustomed to the snowy, cold Pittsburgh winters. Now, I have to chuckle thinking that it was probably yet another culture shock for them.

Here you go, Heather. Our first real snowfall of the winter.....

and guess what....as of today, it is still coming down!