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| Kathy & Chuck c. 1951 |
We are having such
a mild winter and now have only a few inches of snow and lots of bare ground.
We need lots of snow or rain. – Ina Dobson, January 1936
Chuck
and I were visiting about the winters of “our” childhood in Orofino. He and I don't share the same perspective since he’s 13 years older than I, but
we agreed that winters in mid-century Orofino meant plenty of snow. It wasn’t
“if” but “when.”
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| My dad -- c. 1950 |
Chuck
remembered shoveling 18 inches of snow before going to bed one night and then
getting up in the morning and shoveling 18 inches more. “That’s three feet of
snow,” Mike exclaimed. And while memory does tend to exaggerate, we did have
times when the snow dumped on us. After Chuck left home, Daddy took over shoveling
the walks, and if snow began in the evening, he would shovel before bed and
then again first thing in the morning. Our house was on a corner – lots of walk
to shovel.
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| Mother enjoys the snow by night, 1959 |
Our
mother loved the snow – the beauty of the falling snow and the quietude of a
world blanketed in white. During an evening snowfall, we would turn out the
lights in the house and watch the snowflakes dance around the streetlight. She
refused to think of it as a burden or to fear it. In our part of the world, we
needed that snow. And, preparation
for winter is key. I remember having plenty of snow gear on hand – snowsuits, snow
pants, snow boots, mittens, and warm hats.
Of course, I say we had plenty of snow, but as Ina reminds us, a mild winter could happen in any era. Truly, though, it’s different now. Regionally,
we don’t see as much snow as we did 50+ years ago, and people are unprepared when even a little snow happens. And yet, we still need that mountain snow pack
for our crops as well as our basic water needs.
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| The house, 1984 -- lots of snow that year |
We’re having a cold spell right now. It was 8 degrees this morning – the lowest we’ve seen this year. Mike has done a lot of work on the 4-wheeler, thinking he might need to attach the blade and shovel the snow off our lot, but now the forecast, which only predicted a little snow anyway, is for even less snow. The new "normal" seems to be cold and dry. KW
4 comments:
Great photos! I love each one of them. Up here we do seem to still get quite a bit of snow. This year we're thankful, though, that Dan hasn't had to shovel the roof so far. We're supposed to get more this weekend, so we'll see.
Snow-mageddon is expected for tomorrow afternoon. My employer has already given permission to not come into the office at all, and if you do, the office will be closing at 3:00. I'll be going in, but I look forward to a short day. I proposed to Nick that maybe we could do a jigsaw puzzle tomorrow (he's been home sick all week).
Yes, I admit that I really don't know how much snow has fallen in the upper country, but here in the Valley, we have none to speak of, and regionally, I suspect it's not as much this year as some years. (This is a non-specific blog.)
Ooooh! Working on a jigsaw puzzle sounds like a great snowstorm passtime. Do you have a new one? Or will you re-do one you've already done? I hope you have food on hand. Be sure to order some if you don't.
We'll probably re-do one that we have unless I can find one here at work to borrow. There were some floating around, but then I think they might have been given away during a closet purge.
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