Last week, as I was considering some of those subjects that lend themselves to light conversations, I came upon a few of the local go-to gabfest topics over many years. Recently, I reread a few of my notes from the 100 and 125 year old Days Gone By column, which continues to be one of my favorite offerings in the Herald Times. I notice the same seasonal pattern to short editorial comments about local people and places. They make specific mention of the weather, as much as the events or happenings around town.
During the winter, many of their gatherings were held indoors in cabins or one-room schoolhouses. Yet, they shared any number of outdoor gatherings throughout the other seasons. You might have thought they were fighting the good fight against a living breathing creature. Many of the words and phrases described animal behaviors.
As they fought to tame Mother Nature, the words such as fierce, unstoppable and wild depicted the great battle with a living, breathing beast.
The extremely low temperatures of winter had been a given, even though the past few years have been drier and warmer. What one old-timer describes as “the backbone of winter” recognized blizzards that often started in the fall and continued until the official end of winter.
The storms could be devastating — the settlers’ stories conjuring up a trapped animal thrashing at everything in its path. Heavy losses experienced by ranchers and farmers during the early spring lambing and calving seasons made some years more difficult than other. Extreme temperatures were more common, sometimes reaching 40 and 50 below.
The following editorial comment from 1925 says it all: “This time of year weather in January has a kind of Chicago tinge to it namely on Monday, 3 inches of beautiful new snow and 12 inches in below zero temperatures that night. 28 below Tuesday, 3 below Thursday night, and 12 above… Going about the local seasonal traditions in a low-key manner no matter what the climate. It was another version of reporting the weather as everyone experienced it. That was just more “same-old, same-old” response to a predictable small talk question.
By DOLLY VISCARDI – Special to the Herald Times
