Remembering The Weatherman

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Growing up around here, when someone said that the weatherman had predicted something, there was really just one person we had in mind; he was the friendly voice that made anything Mother Nature dished out easier to swallow.

Whether it was too hot, too cold, or snowstorms skirting our area and went frustratingly out to sea while we begged him through the TV for a blizzard to close the schools. He made the weather simple to understand and put it so pleasantly that it was easy to look ahead with hope to finer days in the forecast.

When he later shared his gardening tips on the radio, that same friendly voice gave us the confidence to garden in whatever way makes you happy - like his habit of giving smaller trees a good 'haircut' each year to keep them the size he liked.

Over the years, we learned a lot from Herb Clarke - about the weather, respecting Nature, and to take things in stride, to just enjoy getting outside, see what you can grow, and how much you can reap from a garden - in the end, really a lifetime of rewards.