Winters Long Past
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
Last summer, it was predicted that we would have a bad winter. Then they predicted a mild winter. So, we've had both.
Up until December, many days were almost like summer. After Christmas, snow, snow, snow, ice and sub-zero weather, like a frozen tundra. In the past weeks, the weather has resembled that of the "old-fashioned" winters. Years ago, snow often fell in November, and lay on the ground until the following March. And, blizzards! Boy, back then we really had blizzards!
I remember one Christmas season in Leesburg (I think it was the year 1930) when I was in the fourth grade, and just before it was time to take our school exams, a rip-roaring blizzard hit Kosciusko County. Our teacher, Elizabeth Blaine, informed our class that we were being dismissed to go home, that we would take our exams when we returned to school after Christmas vacation. Well, you never saw so many tickled, slap-happy boys and girls in your life! No exams until after Christmas! Whoopee! That afternoon, when the buses arrived to pick up the farm kids, some of them didn't make it home. The violent snowstorm had drifted most of the roads completely shut. I recall that my uncle and aunt had unexpected guests that night, a bus load of school children who were stranded at their place. Well, my uncle, being a farmer, had plenty of food to feed that bus load of youngsters, enough food for both supper that evening, and breakfast the next morning. The kids had to sleep on the floor. Did I say that the kids "slept" on the floor? What I heard was that they spent most of the night on the floor, whispering and giggling.
In the old days, if the electricity went off, the country wasn't completely deadlocked as it is today. Houses were heated mainly by coal furnaces, room stoves and radiators. And, where water was concerned, all you had to do was step outside your kitchen door, and there was the hand pump that gave off plenty of water; however, at times, the hand pump gave youngsters somewhat of a problem because some youngsters just couldn't resist the temptation of putting their tongue against the ice-cold metal of the pump handle. Then they had to go through the torturous, agonizing process of trying to pull their tongue loose from the freezing pump handle, without tearing the hide off that very sensitive organ.
Oh, yes, I have a bit of whimsy to reveal as regards the aforementioned radiator. On a cold morning back in the '30s, with the hot radiator going full blast in our English and literature room at school, we pupils entered the room detecting a ghastly stench that nearly knocked us for a loop! The room smelled like a cat had been in and out without benefit of his litter box. We discovered later that some prankster smeared Limburger cheese all over the bottom of the radiator. Well, nobody ever pleaded guilty to having committed such dastardly act, therefore, the culprit was never found out.
So goes the memorable days of yesteryear, and the "old fashioned" winters.
Don Kaiser
Warsaw[[In-content Ad]]
Last summer, it was predicted that we would have a bad winter. Then they predicted a mild winter. So, we've had both.
Up until December, many days were almost like summer. After Christmas, snow, snow, snow, ice and sub-zero weather, like a frozen tundra. In the past weeks, the weather has resembled that of the "old-fashioned" winters. Years ago, snow often fell in November, and lay on the ground until the following March. And, blizzards! Boy, back then we really had blizzards!
I remember one Christmas season in Leesburg (I think it was the year 1930) when I was in the fourth grade, and just before it was time to take our school exams, a rip-roaring blizzard hit Kosciusko County. Our teacher, Elizabeth Blaine, informed our class that we were being dismissed to go home, that we would take our exams when we returned to school after Christmas vacation. Well, you never saw so many tickled, slap-happy boys and girls in your life! No exams until after Christmas! Whoopee! That afternoon, when the buses arrived to pick up the farm kids, some of them didn't make it home. The violent snowstorm had drifted most of the roads completely shut. I recall that my uncle and aunt had unexpected guests that night, a bus load of school children who were stranded at their place. Well, my uncle, being a farmer, had plenty of food to feed that bus load of youngsters, enough food for both supper that evening, and breakfast the next morning. The kids had to sleep on the floor. Did I say that the kids "slept" on the floor? What I heard was that they spent most of the night on the floor, whispering and giggling.
In the old days, if the electricity went off, the country wasn't completely deadlocked as it is today. Houses were heated mainly by coal furnaces, room stoves and radiators. And, where water was concerned, all you had to do was step outside your kitchen door, and there was the hand pump that gave off plenty of water; however, at times, the hand pump gave youngsters somewhat of a problem because some youngsters just couldn't resist the temptation of putting their tongue against the ice-cold metal of the pump handle. Then they had to go through the torturous, agonizing process of trying to pull their tongue loose from the freezing pump handle, without tearing the hide off that very sensitive organ.
Oh, yes, I have a bit of whimsy to reveal as regards the aforementioned radiator. On a cold morning back in the '30s, with the hot radiator going full blast in our English and literature room at school, we pupils entered the room detecting a ghastly stench that nearly knocked us for a loop! The room smelled like a cat had been in and out without benefit of his litter box. We discovered later that some prankster smeared Limburger cheese all over the bottom of the radiator. Well, nobody ever pleaded guilty to having committed such dastardly act, therefore, the culprit was never found out.
So goes the memorable days of yesteryear, and the "old fashioned" winters.
Don Kaiser
Warsaw[[In-content Ad]]
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