The Musings of A Simple Country Man

By Hobie Morris

(Brookfield, NY – Jan. 2012) Recently a lifelong Brookfielder had heard via the grapevine that I’m writing an article about the severity of this area’s often Arctic-like winters. He said when he was a boy growing up in the 1950s there was one winter morning when the thermometer had sunk to -50 degrees. All day Bob and his siblings ran across the country road from their hilltop home to a slightly warmer milk barn. The thermometer never “warmed” up a degree that day, according to Bob’s recollections.

“How cold is it, Kate?”

So went a recent early morning call to our nearest neighbor. We knew it must be very cold. In our rural Brookfield neighborhood Kate invariably has the coldest reading at their upland valley “frost pocket” home.

Eight years ago this month she replied in her always sweet voice: “It is -42 degrees.” Whatever the temperature, season or how painful her arthritic joints, Kate’s voice is always sweet, kindly and loving. Her meekness and modesty and willingness with her husband Ken to help others, is legendary in this area; a remarkable lady and family.

A Siberian cold air mass had swept in unannounced and uninvited. It would be close to a week before it returned to its frigid Arctic lair.

While rural, remote and hilly, Brookfield is south of Central New York’s main population centers, its location should never be associated with “warmth.” Year around we are many degrees cooler than Syracuse and Utica/Rome. Kate and Ken have to locate their two small gardens close to buildings to provide some shelter (and thermal mass) from the real possibility of a frost just about every month of our brief summer.

January 2004 was the coldest in our over 31 years of living in this rugged and often unfriendly climate.

My angelic and pioneer hardy beautiful Norwegian/American bride of over 46 years deserves a mountain of accolades for her true grit determination to make our Thoreauian lifestyle a reality. And this is partly why.

Our living accommodation is more like tenting. Our small A-Frame (the tent comparison) is all too accurate. In the past, especially cold weather might produce a whitish layer of frost on the inside (and outside) wall board/roof. Three heated soap stones in bed on especially cold nights. On a positive note we have no water pipes to freeze (we carry all our water in pails). We don’t worry about power lines because we have no electricity and our “outhouse” has no moving parts except when it’s -50 degrees and its occupants are in a hurry

Winter living in the old days wasn’t for the lazy. Lots of firewood had to be cut/sawn by hand. Houses were poorly heated, drafty and scantily insulated. A common insulation was old newspapers, etc. stuck in the walls, rafters, in the floor (usually between the floor boards and linoleum, etc.).

Old timers slept in cold bedrooms often with the windows open. Even with windows shut, blowing snow sifted in through the cracks in the dwelling’s porous frame. Old timers tell of waking up with a thin layer of snow covering their bedspread. Wood heat was wonderfully warming but usually only one side at a time. You had to keep turning like a rotisserie! People in those times had to be very rugged. They had to be to survive!

With “tongue in cheek” several cold temperature stories made their rounds. One time it was so cold the candle flames froze. You saved them by breaking them off and storing them in a metal box. When it warmed up you could thaw the flame to start a fire. Another tale had chimney smoke freezing like a long, tall rope. To keep your stove fire going you had to put up a tall ladder against the smoke rope. You climbed as high as you could and with a sharp axe you’d begin chopping the rope down in frozen chunks. Only when you got it cut down to the roof could your stove burn again!

In 1904 the winter was similar to our historic one in 2004. A brutal January with record snow storms and bone-rattling cold!

In mid- January, 1904, a four-day blizzard hit the area, followed by temperatures plummeting down almost out of sight. On Jan. 18 and 19 temperatures around the Brookfield village ranged from -40 to -44 degrees below zero. Neighboring West Edmeston had -48; Hamilton, -52, -while Syracuse and Watertown showed -40. Even New York City reported in at -1. A local Brookfield rumor persisted that it was so co that “Clate Linger had his ear frozen in bed.”

The unparalleled 1904 cold spell set a benchmark especially in Central New York for the remaining years of the 20th Century.

At many other times severe blizzards seriously compounded the difficulties of Central New York winters.

In March 1914 Brookfield was isolated for days by a blizzard that was compared to the famous 1888 blizzard. Huge amounts of snow and powerful winds virtually stopped all local traffic and activities. The first mail in and out was carried by Charlie Miller who snowshoed to Leonardsville and back, confirming the popular adage that “the mail had to go through” regardless of conditions.

In late January 1908, a huge blizzard blocked roads into Brookfield for several days. Even when eventually opened by hand shoveling and teams of horses, traveling remained hazardous. One day a stage driver tipped his sleigh over 12 times on his Saturday morning seven-mile run to North Brookfield.

In 1902 there were three blizzards in the first 19 days of February causing incredible havoc and disruption. A local man lamented that “one more blizzard will place us upon a snowshoeing basis of communicating with the outside world.”

Eighteen-ninety-nine was a big year in my life; my Father was born. It was also a remarkably bad record setting winter not only in central New York but throughout much of the United States; setting records that remain today. The Waterville Times noted on Feb. 17, 1899 that “1899 will go down as greater in extent and longer in duration than the famous one in ’88….It’s been called ‘The Great Arctic Outbreak of 1899′.”

Among the many weather records were these:

Snow in Fort Myers, Fla.

Lake City, Fla., 3″ of snow

Tallahassee. -2 (Feb. 13)

Miami, 29 on Valentine’s Day

Record lows set in 12 states

Ice on the Mississippi at the Gulf of Mexico (Feb. 19)

New Orleans, 7

Snow sleigh riding in Montgomery, Ala.

-12 in northern Ga.

-61, Logan, Mt.

-15, Washington D.C.

-20, Quantico, Va. (Feb. 11)

On Feb. 22, a powerful “Northeaster” moved up the East coast. By the time it was over there were over 3 feet of snow from Va. to New England.

One weather historian/meteorologist considers the 1899 “Great Storm” the worst in the country’s history. “The loss of lives, livestock, crops, etc. was enormous.”

This simple country man is sure during the next few months we’ll be calling up Kate many times before the robins return, the grass and tree buds begin to green and the crocuses begin to thrust their colorful heads up through the warming earth. By the dawn of Spring our bodies and souls will be rejuvenated by a sun that has gradually climbed higher in the lengthening daylight sky.

In six months we’ll be happily swatting away those often pesky and irritating harbingers of spring. These simple country people will happily shoo the black flies away. We welcome their presence, too.

Hobie Morris is a Brookfield resident and simple country man.