SUSAN SAYS Musings on Winter

The weather has been the big topic of conversation lately. With almost a foot of snow last Tuesday and another three or four inches on Friday, we now feel we can identify with my nephew in Connecticut, a niece in Virginia and a sister working in South Dakota, where frigid temperatures, frequent snowfalls and work stoppages are common.

I’ve missed a couple of days of work and Jim had to postpone his work on the garden shop. Fortunately, we visited the library during their book sale last month and we’re well supplied with reading material, so we spend our days near the fire reading and watching TV. I’ve also tried to catch up on my letter writing and created a few scrapbook pages.

School was only in session one day last week, but the snowfall hasn’t kept the youngsters confined. We enjoyed a visit from the grandkids Thursday evening. They’d been out sledding on the big hills near the school and were very excited about their outing. Jim got some exercise shoveling a path to the mailbox and cleaning off the cars and pickup truck, but Matthew and Alyssa ignored the cleared pathway and trooped right through the deepest snow in the yard.

The snowy, slippery roads have discouraged travel and brought a halt to the Senior Center’s Meals on Wheels deliveries. We’ve prepared hearty, warming dishes that seemed enticing with the chilling winds howling around the house. In the last few weeks we’ve enjoyed pinto beans with ham, potato soup, lentils with smoked sausage and a big pot of cabbage, all delicious the first day and warmed over the next.

Sunday was the annual Super Bowl with all the hoopla and hype associated with that big game. Dallas greeted the visiting teams with a blanket of snow and ice, but then players from Green Bay and Pittsburg should feel right at home in such conditions. I did feel sorry for those fans who paid big bucks for tickets and then couldn’t get flights to the game. As usual, the TV commercials were entertaining but I only saw a few really notable ones.

Gladys Taber, in “The Book of Stillmeadow,” wrote of this season from her 17th Century Connecticut farmhouse. She felt there was much to be said for winter if one looks directly for its beauty.

“It takes an open mind and a ready heart to appreciate winter in New England,” she wrote. “The wind blows, the snow piles deep, the car gets stuck and pipes freeze. It is easy to dream of the South Sea Islands, with coral beaches and sapphire water and strange fruits dropping in your hand ... but under the hard and bitter rind, there is much loveliness.”

Taber appreciated the cool, clean smell of snow in the air, “a special fragrance known only to winter country,” and said, “The sounds are fine too- the ring of skates on black ice, the laughter of children making snowmen, and the soft thud of hooves as the horses stamp in the barn on a frosty morning, the crackle of applewood in the fireplace, the feathery sound of snow shifting from the pine branches in the woods and the small busy sounds of popcorn bursting in the pan.”

Next week we celebrate Valentine’s Day, a holiday that warms the heart in the middle of winter. The legend of its beginning dates back over 1,700 years ago when the Roman Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage, claiming it decreased his male soldiers’ zeal for battle. Despite the Emperor’s decree, a priest named Valentine is said to have continued to perform marriage ceremonies for young lovers. On Feb. 14, 269 A.D., Valentine was beheaded for his commitment to young love, and lovers around the world have been celebrating his memory ever since.

Gladys Taber had something to say about this too: “We need to keep the old legends alive in our matter-of-fact world,” she wrote. “I hope we always celebrate Valentine’s Day. The making of valentines was serious business when I was growing up. Gilt and silver paper, red hearts, lacy paper frills, blue ribbons and little doves to paste on the finished product - we loved them all. I usually got my doves on upside down, but I thought they were elegant.”

Susan Holland is longtime resident of Benton County and a staff member of the Westside Eagle Observer. She may be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].

Community, Pages 6 on 02/09/2011