Marshall McClung
The term “Winter of Our Discontent” appears as early as 1594 in Shakespeare’s Richard III, and more recently as of 1961 in John Steinbeck’s novel by that name.
Could it be that God – knowing how hard we mortals are to please – gave us four distinct seasons to choose from?
One thing for sure is that no matter what our opinion of winter is, it will change nothing. With all our modern technology and inventions, we may have made ourselves more vulnerable than our ancestors were.
Those of us who recall the “Blizzard of 1993” know full well just what weather can do to our way of life.
Winter in some ways would not have affected them as it does us now. Snow-covered roads would have had little effect. The only place they were going was to the barn to feed livestock and milk the cows. There would not have been a loss of electricity, as they didn’t have it in the first place. No worry about frozen water pipes, as there were none to freeze.
You just had to remember not to leave the dipper in the water bucket, as it would be frozen in ice – even if it was sitting by the stove.
They were not left sitting in the dark; they just lit the kerosene lamps. There was no loss of heat either, as a winter’s worth of firewood was cut and stacked nearby long before the first snowflake fell. As far as running out of food was concerned, there was a summer’s worth of an assortment of home-canned goods in the pantry.
Could it just be possible that they were more in touch with who actually controls the weather than we are today? Could it also be that they possessed a wisdom far greater than ours today that has been lost?
Would you be able to survive in the living conditions that they did, or would you perish when your cell phone signal went out?
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.