Billy Monroe Sings Blue Grass About Winter on Mount Washington, New Hampshire

Have you seen the L.L. Bean ad on television where a bundled-up person is shoveling through a deep snowdrift? In the background plays a cheerful folk tune: "Some folks like the summertime, when you can walk about. Strolling through the meadow green..." Have you wondered about that ad?

The singer is BlueGrass classic Bill Monroe. He is often called "the father of Blue Grass." His group, The Blue Grass Boys, discovered a new sound with wicked mandolin playing and a high tenor lead voice. The heyday of this group was the 1930s-40s, and their music influenced performers who followed from Elvis Presley to the Grateful Dead. Monroe's band joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1939, and remained a staple of that venue for more than fifty years. White hats were the group's signature.

Bill Monroe was a genuine folk singer- a farmer who sang, rather than a singer who tried to sound like he was a farmer. He passed away at the age of 85, in 1996. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The song in the advertisement is called "Footprints in the Snow." Of course the ad writers chose to use the lines that fit their product. But the song does actually follow the theme of preferring winter to summer. But that preference is based on the fact that the singer says he found his little Nellie in the wintertime. With standard country heartbreak, Nellie is now in heaven, but "it brings back memories.

For I found her when the snow was on the ground." You can read the full lyrics at Lyrics Mode. You can hear the entire song for free at Rhapsody Online.

The location of the advertisement is announced in small print at the bottom of the screen "Mount Washington, home of some of the worst weather on earth." Mount Washington is located in New Hampshire's Presidential Range, and has an elevation of 6288 feet, the highest peak in the Northeast United States. By western standards, this is a baby mountain, but don't let that fool you! The weather there is particularly atrocious. The highest wind speed ever recorded on the surface of the earth was measured there in 1934. That speed was 231 miles per hour! In fact that speed has only been measured at a speed to exceed that in our atmosphere once. That was in 2003 when a plane flew through the center of Hurricane Isabel and recorded 236 mph. Temperatures on Mount Washington have been recorded as low as -50^o F, lower than the lowest ever recorded at International Falls, Minnesota- famous for it's low temperatures. The highest temperature recorded there is 107^o F, higher than the highest ever recorded in Miami, Florida!

Snow falls on Mount Washington in every month, with a yearly average of 114 inches. Wind moves a lot of the snow off the mountain into nearby Tucker Ravine, where the average snow depth is 48 feet.

So if you have the urge to stroll about in the summertime on Mount Washington, you can find winter there, year round!