New year brings long, cold journey from winter to spring

The days that stretch between the beginning of the new year and springtime seem cold and long. When we were youngsters and grew weary of long winter days, Daddy would encourage us. I can hear his voice even now intoning the magic formula he repeated each winter, "Pretty soon the earth will get warm again, the sun will shine, the grass will grow, you can go barefoot, the tomatoes will get ripe . . ."