Happy New Year

Since this is my first Post for 2018 I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

I found this pic on Pinterest and lots of stories and poems ran through my mind of a family that lived their lives in this little house. I can hear the laughter and all the joy inside and out. I can see all the children running around the house and playing and I could write so much about it.

But... even though it looks like it's Fall in the pic there's another story that comes to mind of what my daddy told many years ago and the hard winters they had to endure. I can hear him talking about a little house such as this in my mind and how cold it could be during those cold winters. He said he used to go and visit his uncle and aunt quite often and would stay a few days with them when he was a young man. He talked about it being so cold that his aunt had piled so many quilts on the bed  he couldn't move till morning and when he woke up the next morning there'd be snow laying on top of the many quilts. It had blown through the cracks during the night. I asked him when he was telling about it if he woke up with snow on his whiskers and he said, "No I slept with my head buried under the covers as well."  He said, even though they kept a roaring fire going in the fireplace and the wood cook stove it was still a very cold, little house .

He also said that it wasn't much different at his own house. His mama (my grandma) would pile those quilts and blankets on the bed to keep them warm and that floor was cold as ice when his feet hit it the next morning. After he and his daddy and mama ate their breakfast he and his daddy would take off towards the barn to feed and milk the old cow and head towards the woods to snake out more wood to keep the fires going. This was after they'd burned up all the wood they'd worked so hard to snake out during the summer months. Daddy's job was to cut the kindling to start the fires in the heater and stove. He always cut it form pine trees and he kept a kindling box at the back of the wood heater and he'd cut enough to fill that box back up. Folks had it rough back then but they always managed to get by with what little they had.

I remember when I was growing up we didn't see any snow laying on the many quilts that mama had made and piled on the beds but it was still very cold when our feet hit the floor in the mornings. Daddy and mama kept a fire going in the wood heater and the wood cook stove also but there were lots of mornings mama had to break ice in the buckets of spring water we'd carried in the night before. It seemed the fire in the cook stove had died down and  it was cold as ice in that little kitchen. But by the time she got breakfast cooked and on the table it was warm again. Daddy and the older boys stayed busy splitting the night's wood and carrying it in. My job was carrying in the many buckets of water. I thought for years my name was "go fetch." We sure did use that water up in a hurry. But it was still daddy's job to cut the kindling and fill the box up behind the stove.

Yep, we had our chores to do and knew when to do them but I wouldn't trade my childhood for nothing. We sure made a lot of memories back then, enough to last a lifetime.

I know it's a cold time right now and down right brutal in some places but I'll have to say, we've got it good compared to what it was back then. I'm so grateful for a warm bed and a roof over my head more each day. God surely does pour out his Blessings!

                                               © Susie Swanson, 2018