Feeling VERY ‘undone’ .... on top of it all, 80 yo cousin in the hospital with pneumonia - hanging in there on the narrow ledge of life so far, but very weak, not eating much, still on antibiotics.
Jerry’s stories are similar to my dad’s with preparation for & during winter. When we visited his parents, no central heat so we were under several heavy quilts at night. I quickly learned to tuck my clothes under the covers so they would be warm in the morning. Ice would form on the inside of the windows. No indoor plumbing - to avoid going to the outhouse in the bitter cold & dark, if you couldn’t wait ‘til morning, there was a cold chamber pot under the bed. No ice fishing, but fishing for eels at night with a torch on the boat. Life threatening if you somehow fell out of or capsized the boat & got wet in the frigid water & sub-freezing temps - it happened once. My Granddad had a premonition & drove his car down to the river just in time to pick up my wet dad & his friend & hustle them home to the warmth of the coal stove & dry clothes. House parties, especially around Christmas, sledding on the steep & icy hills, a gallon bucket of oysters buried in a snow bank to keep for feasting & snow so deep an elk showed up to eat the rose bushes poking out of the drifts, then shared hay with the cows. Winters were definitely more harsh back in those days than present times.
When I was a kid I noticed how every time the snow melted to the point you could see the grass, another snow would come and cover it over again.
We're coming out of a little ice age, and though it's fun to reminiscence about past winters, I'll happily not shovel snow if I can.