If you like snow, you were probably disappointed. If you don't, consider yourself lucky.

However, the little snow we did get was almost immediately swept up by gale force winds, which in turn resulted in drifts and a slick sheen of ice on most of the roads. School was canceled Tuesday and delayed Wednesday because of the icy conditions.

Winter storms also bring about something most New Mexicans are familiar with — constant complaints that we can't drive worth a damn. Usually these phrases come from the lips of people who formerly lived in the Midwest or any other northern tier states.

I'm more than willing to fire off my own invectives against New Mexico drivers, but when it comes to some foreigner coming here and judging us, I get a little defensive. Such is the life of a New Mexican; we're used to the other states piling on us.

When I was in the Air Force overseas, I had to answer the normal idiotic questions, such as "Is New Mexico a state?" or "Do you have to get a passport to visit Ohio?" It was a good thing our students are taught a bit of our history in elementary school, because when us New Mexicans travel outside the borders, we usually have to teach the ignorant masses about us.

But New Mexicans are the worst winter drivers? Unfair, I say.

Have you ever driven in France? Or Germany? Or Phoenix?

The problem isn't New Mexico drivers. The problem is those transplants who come here thinking that the way they did things wherever they came from is better than here.

Lew Wallace, territorial governor of New Mexico from 1878-81, figured out the state pretty quickly.

"All calculations based on experience elsewhere, fail in New Mexico," he once said.

So if you think you can drive in snow in Indiana, you will be wrong when you come here. I'm not suggesting the laws of physics are different here, just the people.

Sure, average yearly snowfall in New Mexico in the lower areas is about 3 inches, which means we just don't have the experience in dealing with the white stuff. But at our higher elevations, the yearly average is anywhere between 8 feet and 25 feet, that is about double the average annual snowfall in Michigan.

It was in those northern New Mexico conditions where I learned to drive in snow. I would commute between Jemez Springs and Los Alamos daily. In the summer, this was a nice little drive; but in the winter, your knuckles were more likely to be white as you gripped the steering wheel.

I know how to put on chains, I know to weigh down the back end of the pickup to get more traction, and I know that four-wheel drive is as useless as two-wheel drive when you are on ice.

There's a reason I don't still live in the mountains, and I imagine it's the same reason a bunch of you northerners now live in New Mexico — it's cold and there's a lot of snow.

In New Mexico, it snows about the same as just about anyplace else, but it soon melts off and we go back to our normal lives. But that doesn't stop people from complaining about the way we drive. So what if I don't use a turn signal? Who cares if my brake lights don't work? Don't like the way I drive 45 in the fast lane?

And when it comes to snow, it's too bad that I drive a little slower than usual; unless I'm in a hurry, then I'll drive a little faster than I should. I'm a New Mexican, darn it, and that's the way we do things around here!

But some people see this as some sort of flaw, a scab to pick at or a disease to be cured.

Instead, we should celebrate our differences, and I think deep in our hearts, we laugh when we hear some northerner complain about our driving, because many times when there is an accident, it is these people who cause them.

In all seriousness, though, police will tell you that a lot of traffic crashes are caused by some drivers going too fast and some drivers going too slow, and when they get on the road together, bad things are more likely to happen.

That is no different than anywhere else. The key to avoiding problems, as we all learned in driver's education, is to be a defensive driver.

That's especially true here; it is New Mexico after all.

Contact McClannahan at 823-7102 or online at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .