“The very fact of snow is such an amazement.”
The morning is drab, cloudy, windy and chilly. Showers are predicted. But despite the ugly weather, I don’t get to stay close to hearth and home today. I have to go out later as it is shot day again, pneumonia and shingles this time, the last of my shots. I also have uke practice tonight. Our first Christmas concert is tomorrow. Tis’ the season!
When I was kid, snow was an opportunity. Lots of snow meant sitting around the kitchen table listening for the fire station horn to blow to announce no school. We didn’t have it streaming on the TV back then. We had the horn. After the celebration for no school, we’d layer to go out into the snow. I wore a shirt, a sweater and my winter coat. I would cram my shoes into my boots. I’d grab a hat and my mittens then I’d haul my sled out of the cellar, but it was easy to carry, not like my bike. I lived on a great hill for sledding. It was tall and steep. About midway down, my sled would gain speed. At the bottom of the hill there was a road, and we’d post lookouts watching for the cars. A good run meant crossing the road onto the field across the street where the sled would stop in a pile of snow. I’d stay sledding until my mittens were caked with snow and my lips were turning blue.
After sledding all day, a cup of cocoa was the best warm-up. My mother used to put the cocoa in the cup, add milk, stir them together then add hot water. On the top she’d put a spoonful of Marshmallow Fluff. I remember it would melt a bit then spread and cover the whole top of the cocoa. It would also cover my upper lip.
My sister and I have discussed our Christmas trees. She is the slave of three cats, two of whom would love the challenge of the tree. I have Nala, enough said! My sister has decided to decorate her tree with only lights. I’m thinking I’ll put baubles, colored round ornaments of little value, on the bottom of my tree. I’m hoping Nala will might leave them alone, but I could be wrong. She is the consummate thief.
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November 28, 2023 at 1:43 pm
Hi Kat,
Here there’s no chance of snow and the temperature should peak oit at 61°.
A horn at the fire station to signal no school due to snow? Oir fire stations have sirens that sound if the NAS, (National Weather Service), has issued a tornado warning.
When I was a little kid in Brooklyn, my father took me to a park so I could go sledding down a snow covered hill. I must have been about five or six years old. After moving to Dallas Texas, we never had enough snow as a kid to use a sled. A friend of mine was a pilot in the Air Force in the 1970s. He was stationed at an airbase in the upper peninsula of Michigan. When he arrived one airman told him, “We get to have winter sports ten months of the year. The other two months it’s too cold”. 🙂
Once around Thanksgiving I was in Toronto Canada and they received their first snow of that year. Our instructors in our training center were lamenting how all the drivers in Toronto can’t remember how to drive in snow from one year to the next.
November 29, 2023 at 1:44 am
Hi Bob,
It is freezing right now, down to the low 30’s. It will only get to 38 degrees on Wednesday. I guess we are in the throes of winter.
When I was a kid, the horn blew to announce fires. They had a special sounds for parts of town. I don’t remember the sequence for no school,but we all knew it back then.
We know people in the south have no idea how to drive in snow with their not seeing it often, but that surprises me about Toronto.
November 29, 2023 at 10:13 pm
Hi Kat. Happy Winter!
Now that it’s cold and there’s snow on the ground, and it’s a month past Hallowe’en, the first day of winter, I find that I must hear my favorite winter song, Mike Heron’s “Feat of Stephen”, so out comes his album ‘Smiling Men with Bad Reputations”.
What, you don’t have the LP?
“When winter came this year she found me well prepared for her
The flame well fed with pine, shuttered windows oakwood doors
From the low dales come the fiddler, gave his tunes their flight
Don’t know her name or the dance that became her so well
From topmost limb of night’s dark tree
Tonight my lantern light floats free
The ladies danced so well, the ladies danced so light
But it was not mortal step drew me from my guests to meet the night
Snow lies deep with friends unseen
I will light my eyes to Venus green
Holding my life with a hope
When the midnight skies rise
She flies,she flies —”
More about it here: https://normanlamont.com/feast-of-stephen-mike-heron-john-cale/
November 29, 2023 at 10:46 pm
J,
It is cold. Winter is indeed upon us. The dogs snuggle next to me in bed, keeping all of us warrm.
No, I do not have the LP but now you have me wanting it. This song is haunting both in his voice and the lyrics. I love the Incredible String Band. I know John Cale but I didn’t know Mike Heron.
The article was excellent. The record, the album would not be the same without John Cale.
Thank you for this comment. Now I have to hunt down the LP!!