Hello Fellow Weather Enthusiasts

“Hello, I’m Michael Parillo, a 73-year-old native of New Haven, Connecticut, proudly hailing from the land of the world’s best pizza! While I spent the majority of my life in the Nutmeg State, embracing the charm of Hamden, Wallingford, and Bethel, my family and I decided to escape the relentless snow and ice of New England winters in 1991. Englewood, Florida became our beloved home for twenty-three years, where my wife Gail, son Thomas, and I enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather twelve months a year!  However, in 2013, we embarked on a new chapter in Swainsboro, Georgia, drawn by the opportunity to be closer to our son Thomas and our two cherished grandchildren, Raymond and Wyatt. Life’s journey has taken us through different landscapes, but family remains at the heart of our adventures.”

My love and fascination with the weather began around 1961 when I was ten. My mother had installed a simple mercury type outside thermometer that I could see from the inside of the house. She explained to me how it worked. I would check it as often as I could. Remember back then the only weather information available was the morning or evening newspaper or AM radio. Local TV consisted of three channels in black and white and you had to watch live local TV at around 6:15pm to get the weather forecast. There were no VCR or DVR back then. I can remember trying to get weather updates at night listening to my AM transistor radio. The problem back then was they turned the power output of AM radio signals down at night (they may still do it today?) so reception was sketchy at best.

Weather forecasting slowly improved as the years went by. Availability and information were still limited to the above methods. Keep in mind what I described had a lot to do with where one lived. If you lived in or near a major city you could get more TV channels and better radio signals allowing for slightly more options. Choices really didn’t change drastically until the early 70’s when cable TV began to pop up. They offered far more channel’s and some even scrolled weather information on the bottom of the screen! The weather channel didn’t arrive until the early 80’s depending on your cable provider.

Growing up, people used to talk about the weather all the time, more so than today possibly because of the limited availability of current weather data or forecasting. One of the common debates with co-workers, friends, and family members was about weather in the past. This would spark some feisty debates. The only way you could verify any data back then was to call on a landline or go to the public library to research the specific question. Calling the library would yield results with a call back from the librarian several hours later or even several days later! (no Internet  back then)