WINTER

On the tape, he recited this poem before he began to read the text.

Loudly blows the north wind,
through the shivering trees.
Bare are the branches,
falling are the leaves.
And it is December the 21st.,
and winter and the days
will began to lengthen.
It will be a month or so,
before you began to notice 
that they are getting longer.

I remember one event that always took place when winter began. We put on our long underwear (Long Johns) and could take them off on Easter no matter how cold it was. Once a week there was the ordeal of taking a bath. There was no indoor plumbing so we had to sit in a big tub in front of the kitchen cook stove. We filled the tub half full of water, stripped, and stepped in very gently. I remember one time when one of my younger brother *1  was standing in the tub too close to the cook stove, when he dropped a bar of soap, and he stooped over to retrieve the cake of soap, his behind connected with the stove and he came out with a yell and only slightly blistered. There was also the ordeal of going to bed in winter time. Our up stairs of course had no heat except a register in the floor that permitted a little heat to come up through the floor from below. We pulled off our clothes rapidly and jumped in bed and piled on the comfort and blanket. You see your breath on real cold nights and many times a little snow would sift in through the crack around the window and you could sweep the snow off your covers in the morning, and of course it wasn't wet because it was too cold to melt. We had been taught to say our prayers, and of course we had been taught to say 'Now I lay me down to sleep',  and one of my younger brothers who slept with me on the coldest nights would get on his knees by the bed and pray. I did mine after I got under the covers. When he got in and touched me he felt  like an icicle. I don't know if my brother prayed for snow but I did and frequently my prayers were answered. Then I would ask for a little rain on top of the snow to freeze and make a crust that would hold up under a sled and I got that often too. One winter activity that to me was hard work, but when you are healthy it is pleasant work. This was keeping on hand a good supply of firewood for the two or three wood stoves on the ground floor. Since there was no power equipment, all wood cutting was by hand. The necessary equipment was a sharp axe, a sharp cross cut saw with my father on one end and me on the other, a sledge hammer and heavy iron wedges for splitting chunk of wood, a horse and a sled or two horses and a low wagon stood nearby to haul the wood for the wood to the house. Woodsmen learn how to cut a tree so that it will fall in the right place. My father was an expert at this. After the tree fell, we trimmed off the branches with an axe, then we would start with the cross cut saw which is about 5 or 6 ft. long and a handle on each end. We cut the tree into 4 foot lengths and then into chunks which often were split with axe or sledge hammer and wedge. The chunks would be stove length and most of them needed splitting. They were loaded on the sled or wagon then would be hauled to the wood pile close to the house. And I never forgot the invigorating smell of wood smoke in the air of a cold frosty morning.

When big snows came the roads became impassible with huge drifts and these had to be moved before you could travel by wagon or even by sleigh. This was before there was any mechanized snow removal equipment, and had to be removed with shovels. We frequently made a wooden shaped snow plow pulled by horses for a path over the house and to the barns. On the public roads they were traveled by horseback or sleigh with a string of bells on the horse or horses. If drifts were too big each farmed shoveled the snow if the public road were by his farm. Years later in the mountains I became an expert in using snow shoes, the famous snow shoes from L. L. Bean. I think in the last 50 years I have worn out five or six pairs of L. L. Bean's Maine Snowshoes. When it rained and froze on snow, when all the chores were finished until evening was sled riding time. There was a gentle slope from the house past the barn then a little steeper to the top of a hill. On a sled from the tip we could ride with fast speed from the top to the front door of the house. From a very early age I learned that winter begins in our latitude near December 21st. which is the shortest day of the year. After several weeks you can see the days getting a little longer and can observe the shadows made by posts and trees changing direction. I also learned the use of the compass and signs in the sky of coming storms. Much is this is Greek to a lot of people who have lived all their lives in the city and very seldom see the stars or brewing storms. It is fascinating today to see weather maps on TV with highs and lows with different colors for signs of precipitation. There were a few chores we had to do during the winter. Carrying in wood for the big wood box by the kitchen stove and trips to take care of in the barn. We fed the horses and carried in fresh straw for bedding. the cows had to be milked and fresh bedding carried in. Hay had to be pitched out of hay mows and down a chute to the stable below. The pigs needed to be fed corn and skimmed milk and bran. We witnessed new pigs being born as well as calves and colts and lambs. The warmest place in the barn was the large stable in the middle of the low level for the sheep. They needed feeding as when lambs began to come. Some of them we had to carry to the house, feed them with bottle and nipple until they could be taken back to their mothers. On a bitter cold day you could feel more heat in the sheep by putting your hands in the deep wool on their backs. None of these tasks were distasteful. My mother and father knew that we liked to do it all except milking. I did not particularly care for, especially in the summer, when the cows tail would switch you in the face constantly and it would be hot and there would be flies everywhere. I think of these days quite frequently now in the time when I'm out tramping through the fields and the woods on snowshoes. The experiences from childhood could never be forgotten. Today when I think of those days with all the animals, and the sheep, when I walked in the stable among the, 50 to 75 of them, I think of those beautiful words from Handle's Messiah. "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd and take the lambs unto his bosom."

*1 Elizabeth MORROW BUSEY believed this was Henry. (DWM)

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