posted on January 28, 2010 08:22:51 AM new
After the historic blizzard over Christmas, here in the midwest, today we've got freezing rain, sleet and snow with widespread power outtages predicted. So far here in OKC, we're powered up and hopefully will stay this way but I'm SICK AND TIRED of all the crummy weather. As long as I have power, guess I'll put some listings on eBay. Hope it's better where you are!
posted on January 28, 2010 08:28:03 AM new
Sunny here but too frickin' COLD! It's -1. Leaving for San Juan on Saturday and CAN'T WAIT!
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posted on January 28, 2010 09:26:48 AM new
Lucky you, neglus! Roads here are treacherous and flights cancelled so escaping is not an option here! So, I'm hunkering down and praying power continues to stay on! Luckily, I have gas logs so I know I won't freeze.
[ edited by blueyes29 on Jan 28, 2010 09:27 AM ]
posted on January 28, 2010 10:26:19 AM new
It's beautiful here in North Florida but on the cool side. At least it warms up during the day (unlike a few weeks ago).
posted on January 28, 2010 11:26:01 AM new
On the coast of British Columbia it is unseasonably warm. 46F at present in Victoria.
On Cypress Mountain in Vancouver where some of the Olympic events will be held they are busy putting in straw bales and moving some of the snow down the mountain from the higher elevations to cover the straw so they can make the runs for the snowboarding and other events!
I lived in Calgary during the 1988 Olympics and we had a Chinook wind blow in and the bobsled run was a dust bowl for several days! Everyone took it in stride until the weather got cold again but here it really doesn't get too cold so I think they expected this and were prepared.
I am just glad we live in Victoria and not Vancouver with all the roads closures and security for the Olympics it will be a nightmare for folks who still have to go to work there.
posted on January 28, 2010 11:54:04 AM new
We've had our share of sucky weather lately--lots of snow, freezing rain, wind, etc., here in our So. Calif. mountains. But we do need the moisture!
I think often, esp. in cold weather, about my husband's great-great-grandmother Mary Folsom. In the mid-1800s her husband founded Folsomdale, N.Y., made some good money from that, then went west to found the town of Tekamah Nebraska, made more good money. The story of how his family got from Attica NY where they'd been living in luxury, to Nebraska in late autumn of 1857 is hair-raising, and in the process one of their children, a daughter Jane, about 12, died.
(We've been transcribing the 40 diaries she left, dating from 1856 to 1900, slowly, and have 10 left. About 5 nights a week, we sit down in my office, I at my computer, my husband in a nearby chair with magnifier and tiny tiny diary written in cramped pencil or pen. He reads aloud, faithful to Mary's spelling and punctuation, etc., and I type as he writes. We can cover a month's worth of writing in one 1-hour session. It's been lots of fun and a real hoot sometimes.)
The Folsoms moved into what we expected would be a fairly crude house in Tekamah, had lived there for several months when Mary writes in her diary that they finally got a floor in the house! When I think of her family, children, and a servant girl living on a dirt floor it just gets to me. And of course the winter weather was terrible then. Compared to their lives, ours are easy-peazy, as Tom used to say.
_____________________
"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who ***dared to dissent*** from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, ***may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."*** --Eisenhower
[ edited by roadsmith on Jan 28, 2010 11:59 AM ]
posted on January 28, 2010 12:51:27 PM new
Oh how I love those stories and how I envy you owning those diaries. When I hear my grown up young relations whine about not having a dishwasher I would love to sit them down with something like those diaries!
We were out for a walk early this week in the sunshine and found an elderly gentleman sitting on a bench overlooking the water. We did the polite thing and said good morning and the conversation evolved into him telling us the story of how his father had travelled from northern Ontario to Alsask, Alberta and homesteaded in 1913.
We talked for an hour and then left him sitting in the sunshine, he is in his nineties. I remarked to my hubby that once these people are gone we shall have no-one to tell the stories.
That is why I am so pleased that you are transcribing those diaries and I do wish more folks would capture that family history.
[ edited by otteropp on Jan 28, 2010 12:52 PM ] for typos of course!
[ edited by otteropp on Jan 28, 2010 12:52 PM ]
posted on January 28, 2010 01:44:33 PM new
My brother, who is in his 90's often emails me stories of when he was a teenager.
"When we lived at 11821 - 96 st in Edmonton, where you were born, dad was a chef and swiped a gallon of varnish from White Lunch Cafe. We varnished the living room, which was cedar v-joint. A bazillion flies buzzed around and got stuck on the varnish. Closer study determined it was maple syrup. Then we had to remove it. Crime does not pay!
In the same house, I was persuaded to dig a basement. I had to crawl under the floor until I had a hole big enough for a wheelbarrow and a ramp and spread the clay over the back yard. Wouldn't nothin grow in it so had to dig it into the original dirt until we could grow some spuds.
By leaving a shelf of basement unexcavated, I made a workbench for woodworking. I had a plane and dad had a 2 by 4 about 36" he wanted to plane so he put it on the bench but the bench was only 24" deep so a foot of board was hanging over. When he pushed down hard on the plane on the overhang, the other end flew up and gave him a heluva whack on the forehead! To show the plane who was boss, he flung it and broke it! I didn't dare laugh when he explained with the plane was broken. Your mom had some difficulty keeping a straight face too!"
posted on January 28, 2010 05:52:03 PM new
YEAAAAAA! Power stayed on all day and I got LOTS accomplished. Have enjoyed SO much reading all of your stories...thanks for the cherished memories and for passing them along. This HAS to be the best board around...at least I think so!
posted on January 28, 2010 06:33:18 PM new
I may have posted this before- sorry for the caps:
1911 POSTCARD MAILED FROM ST PETER MN FROM CHILDREN STRANDED IN A MINNESOTA SNOW STORM:
DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER,
WE COULD NOT COME HOME BECAUSE IT WAS TOO STORMY. SUNDAY WHEN WE CAME OUT OF CHURCH IT WAS SNOWING SO HARD WE HAD TO SHUT OUR EYES SO WE THOUGHT WE COULD WAIT A WHILE AND IT GOT WORSE AND TODAY IT WAS TWICE AS BAD. AUNTY SAID IT WAS ALRIGHT WE COULD EAT ALL WE WANTED OF HER THINGS. ATHUR GOT SOME OATS FROM THE HORSELER AT C. SWENSON, AND THEN HE GOT ALL THE CORN HE WANTED FROM THE OSBOURNES. WILL TRY TO COME HOME TOMORROW IF IT AIN'T TO STORMY. WE THOUGHT IT WAS BETTER TO STAY. AUNTY SAID WE COULD GET SOME COATS FROM THEM. I HOPE YOU AIN'T BEEN WORRYING BECAUSE WE DIDN'T COME HOME. WE ARE SAFE IF WE STAY HERE. FROM DORA AND ARTHUR
posted on January 28, 2010 06:49:06 PM new
These stories are priceless!
I am still giggling about the Maple Syrup!
I also wonder what became of Dora and Arthur...maybe their Mama had been just waiting for a snowstorm so they could stay at their Aunties house!
Have you ever been in a Store when over the Intercom comes a voice saying 'We have a little boy here who says he is 3 yrs old and he has lost his Mummy, could his Mummy please come and get him". I still have my rather off-beat dry English sense of humour because I always say to my DH. "Don't they know his Mum has been bringing him here every day for a week trying to lose him?"
I think we were all ready for a thread like this after the EBay news and the SUCKY weather in some parts!
posted on January 30, 2010 08:42:50 AM new
The oldest part of our house still has a dirt floor. It's now our bedroom. In the old days, once a year in the fall the men would haul in a new layer of clay and tamp it down, and when it was time for the "matanza", or hog slaughter, saved pig blood would be boiled to thicken it a bit and that would be painted onto the packed dirt. After so many generations, that floor is now about 6 inches thick, has a gorgeous cordovan/mahogany color and is hard and smooth as any concrete. My father sealed it a long time ago and I've resealed it several times since. I think it's been about a hundred years since it's seen any fresh pig blood.
posted on February 1, 2010 08:53:54 AM new
Love the story, Prof!
It's sunny here, but still very cold. Just when you start to adjust, it warms up. Then it gets cold again. I wish it would stay one temperature. We've actually had very little snow. It did snow for a week straight, but that's really all we've had. It's gone now.
