It's snowy!
It's cold!
I grew up in big old, cold houses decorated throughout with large cast iron radiators. At 820 Stevens Avenue the banging, when the heat came on, kept me company all night long. Early, winter mornings always seemed to pack a punch. My room was frigid! Some days my breath could be clearly seen. Cripes! The night before, I'd even stack my school clothes on the chair next to the bed and actually got dressed in bed. Crazy! Wrinkled-free clothes had not made the scene yet, and we had no clothes dryer, other than the sun, to help eliminate the creases. But I was a guy, and it was junior high so what I looked like was no big deal. Wrinkled clothes or not, when I hit the toasty-warm kitchen all shivering was forgotten for the day. Dad lit the wood stove at 5 AM and by 7 it was nirvana in there with the hallway doors closed. Eating my steaming bowl of oatmeal, with loads of sugar, and talking foolish to anyone who would listen was my fuel for the morning. One snow day, it was so freezing in my bedroom that, I etched a curse to the sky and myself, with the fingernail of my index finger.
"It's way too COLD!"
With that off my conscience, I jumped back, under the heavy quilt, and headed back to dreamland.
i grew up in a farmhouse in wisconsin that had nothing but a giant wood furnace in the basement. the frost on the inside of the windows in our upstairs bedrooms was extreme. the hardwood floors were icy cold. my poor mother had to get up in the middle of the night, bundle up, go outside to the exterior basement entrance, then down the stairs to 'fire up' throughout the night and day.
ReplyDelete(horse, not cow)
ReplyDeleteI never had those problems growing up. Still live in the same house, my great grandmother helped construct a little over a century ago.
ReplyDeletenow you've made me cold! i think radiators are an east coast thing. we didn't have them. i remember staying the night at my grandparents house frequently and they'd get up early and kick the heater on. i was always warm and toasty when i finally climbed out of bed!
ReplyDeleteWow! That does look cold.Good luck with this latest round of winter.
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty good description as to how it was at my grandmother's house in northern Minnesota. I can't remember how many layers of blankets I slept under!
ReplyDeleteSometimes the "good ol' days" weren't so good at all!
After a very nice start into winter we got some rain and a quite cold weather. Not snow, but who knows...
ReplyDeleteAs a kid , I remember that the only room that was warm was the kitchen..Like you, I had some hard winter mornings, getting dressed in my bed! And yet, it makes now happy memories..
ReplyDeleteAH, a thick quilt can sometimes be such a comfort! Thank goodness for central heating, though. ;)
ReplyDeleteI feel like I just watched a movie of you in the good old days...Love your visual writing. I remember some one from Caribou telling me that a glass of water by his bedside would be frozen on many childhood winter mornings, in an old farmhouse...It is unusually COLD this year, no?
ReplyDeleteIt's that kind of day today!
ReplyDeleteYou capture that winter morning cold perfectly. Must've made you a hearty lad. :))
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many of us on CDP have a similar experience and memories? I would hate to have to do that now!
ReplyDeleteChilling thoughts
ReplyDeleteKeep warm Birdman!
ReplyDeleteI'm chilled just reading about your childhood experience! Where was Marchin? In a nice, warm room? How about the girls? Were you exiled to the third floor as a punishment, or by choice? Was it freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer? Inquiring minds want to know!
ReplyDeleteI has no idea that you grew up in the 19th Century. So, what was it like meeting Mr. Charles Dickens?
ReplyDeleteYou etched that curse in the ice on the window, I assume?
ReplyDeleteI remember making drawings with my fingerprints on such inside ice in Chicago.
Why do radiators make that annoying banging noise anyway?
For Annie's mom and all inquiring minds! 820 Stevens was a long L shaped cape with four bedrooms. Let's play musical chairs (bedrooms) Ok circa 1957 we moved there after J was born. On the second floor there were two front bedrooms facing the street, a middle bedroom, a bathroom between the middle room and a back bedroom. Four in all. Are you following this? It starts out with Mom and Dad and baby J occupying the bedroom in front and me in the other bedroom in front all by my lonesome! Marchin was in the middle room and big bro Birdman occupying the back coldest room for a period of time...note... period of time. Next Mom and Dad move J to my previous solo habitation. Next move is Mom and Dad move to the middle room...J and I move to their room... Marchin moves to the cold room, and finally Birdman moves to my old habitat in the front. Got that!! Thanks for listening. Have you heard Marchin's broken arm story? He nursed that when he was in the middle room...Oh but I digress.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the snow,
Lakeland Checks In! Maybe I moved to Florida for reason?