I have finally seen it all.

I have seen Southerners freak out at the sight of snow.

On Monday, the News-Herald office was abuzz with the knowledge of a pending “snowstorm” forecasted for our area.

While our advertising staff prepared their Thursday edition “dummy” (kind of a map the news staff follows as to where to place ads in the newspaper) in anticipation of being snowed in, I was pondering just how bad it was going to get.

And I was wondering exactly how small the ad reps’ houses are to allow the forecasted three to five inches of snow to completely snow them in.

I know, I know, they were more than likely worried about road conditions than literally being snowed in, but I have to tease them a bit. Because, seemingly unlike advertising, the news staff is like the Postman (or woman), come wind, sleet, rain and shine we’re going to have to show up some how.

My main concern was with road conditions as well. On a clear day on Hwy. 11 between Murfreesboro and Ahoskie, I come across at least one person that is going 35 mph. Factoring in the road conditions with snow, I calculated that person’s speed would drop down to, oh, I would say five mph.

And while I wouldn’t encourage anyone to speed during bad weather, the weather on Tuesday was not the Apocalypse-like conditions we were expecting.

When I stepped out of my home on Tuesday morning, I was happy to see that snow brush my mom bought me four years ago was actually going to be of some use other than collecting dust in my trunk.

Of course the “use” of the snow brush only lasted three seconds as I only needed to “dust off” my back window.

My co-worker, Patrick Bryant, was happy to inform me later if I “had just gone fast enough the snow would have blown off.”

Thanks Patrick, but I just wanted to be able to tell my mom I was able to use the thing at least once.

The drive to work was quite unremarkable compared to the “Storm of the Century” mindset we all seemingly had.

We all can handle a little snow, right?

Wrong. By the time I arrived at the office, the ad reps were already fleeing, the wimps.

I was impressed with the amount of snow, and the vigor in which it came down, not at all like those few measly snow flakes that fell the couple times I’ve been here.

As the snow piled up in Ahoskie, I couldn’t help but think of the snow banks that are probably piled up around my mom’s house in upstate New York, where inches of snow don’t count until they add up to feet.

Yep, try driving in that.

Amanda VanDerBroek is a Staff Writer for the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald. For comments and column suggestions email: amanda.vanderbroek@r-cnews.com or call (252) 332-7209.