Milk sandwiches? Bless our sarcastic little hearts, y’all. The memes work overtime when snow is in the forecast. But we Southerners can’t deny we have a strange urge to buy bread and milk when it snows and now the joke is that we use them to make “milk sandwiches.”

Our panic-buying is a quirk makes folks who aren’t from around these parts wonder. (You can read responses to a curious Canadian’s questions here.)

In Alabama, our brains tell us: Go to the grocery store. Buy milk and bread. And sometimes eggs. Or toilet paper, depending on how much you stockpile. Why do they tell us that? Because it’s what our grandmothers did. Because it’s what our neighbors do. Because nine out of 10 people on Facebook said so.

We never questioned why. We just knew the ingredients for French toast were synonymous with winter storm watches.

Now we’re asking the burning question: Why? Why those products? Why the urgency?

I set out to find the answer and here it is: I’m not sure. But hold on a second – I did find a few theories and I collected them below so you can decide for yourself.

The symbolism of comfort theory

Paul Farhi from The Washington Post weighed in with a bread-and-milk panic theory way back in 2005.

He floated the hypothesis that it’s the symbolism of bread and milk – as old as humanity itself – that makes them first on our list when disaster looms: “Bread is the host, the staff of life, a palpable object of survival. Milk is a no-brainer, too – it’s the sustenance that a mother provides an infant, a biblical promise (”a land flowing with milk and honey”), a smooth and nutritious foodstuff (except for the lactose-intolerant).”

The historic storm theory

AccuWeather.com had a more concrete theory of pre-storm panic, writing “nothing seems to strike fear into people like snowstorms,” according to a CNN article.

The writer theorized that the tradition of flocking to stores began in contemporary times, and with a single snowstorm – and it’s one that didn’t occur in the South.

“It appears that New Englanders can take credit for the purchasing of milk and bread prior to the storm. It was the monumental blizzard in 1978 that trapped many in homes for weeks that gets at least some credit for the current tradition.”

The psychological theory

A writer for HowStuffWorks.com interviewed a couple of psychologists about what the writer termed: “The compulsive desire to stockpile perishables.”

Psychotherapist Lisa Brateman told the reporter: “The thought to get milk before a storm is followed by the action or compulsion to go out and stockpile it. In one way or another, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to feel in control, and buying things you might throw out still gives the person a sense of control in an uncontrollable situation.”

So buying canned goods and non-perishables sends the message that you think the storm may trap you in your house for an extended period.

Perishables, though, are the epitome of optimism. As licensed clinical psychologist Judy Rosenberg said in the article: “Buying perishables is like saying, ‘the storm will be over soon and I won’t be stuck in this situation for long.’”