Winter in Our Cabins
by Mary Cummings (Jason Street)
Weathering winter in the neighborhood is described as a pleasure or a test of endurance depending on whom you ask. Age is certainly a factor when snow is involved and icy streets complicate all our lives but, overall, we seem able to make the best of the cold, dark season. Hill’s Pond becomes an animated Currier and Ives scene every year but this year, the skating extended from the pond onto the paths with the Jason Street path being glacial from the first snow fall in December to today (2/21/08). I was glad to see some of it melting in the recent heavy rains until I noticed that it was melting into my basement!
I decided to ask neighbors how they deal with New England winters in hopes of finding inspiration to get me through till April. I emailed a survey of six questions to our Neighborhood Newsletter email list and share some of their responses with you.
1. How does winter affect your neighborhood social life? For example, do neighbors spend more time talking with or visiting other neighbors in winter because winter makes it easier to spend more time in the neighborhood? Or do they spend less time with neighbors, because they are outside less and don’t see their neighbors around as much?
• Aside from skating, winter doesn’t really present opportunity for social contact. I tend to hibernate, but I do spend quality time with my immediate neighbors while shoveling snow.
• While it’s true that we see each other less (and come spring we greet each other like groundhogs at the first sight of sun) we also rely on each other more. The worse the weather gets, the more we learn to reach out. We share shovels, and snow blowers, and advice; we borrow eggs or cups of sugar. We share rides when cars won’t start, water when the pipes freeze, and candles when the power goes. A big snow can feel like a giant camp-out.
• I spent those last two snow and ice-filled weeks of December in South Florida, so I’m not emotionally qualified to respond. Still, warm and sunny as it was, I would never trade it for this place, even in retirement. I like a little snow and ice in my life, just as I appreciate the warmth and sun of summer. What could make our winter a little better would be to get rid of the winter glacier that makes half of the Hill’s Pond circumference unwalkable in winter.
• One neighbor had a spontaneous brunch party on a particularly snowy Sunday. It was fun and unexpected.
• Fewer interactions, overall, but still many. We have a shared snow thrower at the top of our street, and people have get-togethers to show vacation slides or whatever.
• We spend a lot of time outside playing and shoveling with neighbors in the winter. I am not sure if this is more of less time than we spend with them in other months.
2. Do you fight off periodic bouts of cabin fever? If so, how?
• I get outside every day, have lots of company and cook for whoever will visit me. I also teach everyday and that’s a great way to stave off winter blues.
• We seem to use the weather as an excuse to get stuff done inside the house, go to the movies, and read.
• I get really down when the days are shorter and colder. Winter is a season of a constant runny nose, cold hands and feeling cooped up.
• A little walk usually does the trick.
• Yes, by getting outside and enjoying winter activities.
3. Do you love to be out in the cold, snow and ice? If so, why?
• A new snowfall is quite beautiful. Watching my dog romp in the snow or my daughter sledding at Robbins Hill Farm is the upside of the freezing temperatures.
• It’s pretty for a few minutes, but then the romance fades, and the elements become at best a distraction, at worst a perilous obstruction.
• I love to cross country ski and the kids love to play in the snow - either building forts, having snowball fights, or sledding.
• I love the cold and snow, but NOT ice because it’s dangerous. I find the cold invigorating.
• Yes, I enjoy alpine and cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing.
• Okay, I admit it; I love shoveling. Those well-earned muscle aches, that feel of civic heroism. Even at my advanced age I also enjoy sledding. Several of us here love snow-shoeing. And when the ice is clear, going to Menotomy Rocks is like going to a circus: all those skaters on the pond, and dogs, and parents with wagonloads of little ones, and thermoses of cocoa. What makes me gnash my teeth is trying to walk to the bus down unshoveled sidewalks, or climbing the snow banks on corners where there’s no access from sidewalk to street.
• I’d rather watch it through a window. Shoveling and dealing with ice are bothersome for me.
4. Do you enjoy inside games or cozy hobbies? If so, what are they?
• We love to play board games together and often will spend a few hours doing that on a lazy Sunday.
• Movies, music, crossword puzzles, cooking.
• Jigsaw puzzles saved me from cabin madness in ’78.
• Games like Pictionary and Taboo.
• Lots of indoor activities: Movies, reading, community theatre (AFD), music get-togethers, etc.
• We sing together; play Scrabble, Boggle, Apples-to-Apples; go contra-dancing; build fires in the fireplace, mull cider, and cook lots.
• I like to read, listen to music, sew, knit, cook and have company.
5. Do you contemplate retirement in warmer climes? If so, where and why?
• No, I think we will always live somewhere with the changing seasons.
• Constantly—Europe tops the list every time. Cote d’Azur, Riviera, Ibiza, Provence—anyplace near those beaches.
• Absolutely, perhaps Austin Texas. Better yet splitting the year between here and somewhere warmer.
• Never! Death first! We are die-hard new Englanders, with no taste for Southern heat, humidity, or age-based communities.
• Not warm, but warmer with no snow. We can’t really shovel anymore.
• I’m retired now. Our friends are here. We’re staying.
6. What could we all do to make winter in our neighborhood more pleasant for all?
• Everyone should get after the Selectmen, Town Manger, and DPW to demand that the practice of piling up the maximum possible amount of snow at corners be reversed. This anti-pedestrian policy was only implemented within the last four years or so.
• More aggressive clearing of sidewalks would help, both for safety and for encouraging people to get out to walk to the Center or whatever.
• Get outside and talk and laugh and help; then have a potluck lunch or dinner.
• Maybe a neighborhood game night?
• We could walk more often, drive less, wave at each other, and go caroling (or the equivalent) out of season. We could offer rides or library runs or errands to stores. We could hold igloo-building parties at the park.
• People should shovel their sidewalks, including and especially the mounds pushed up by driveway plowing.
• A hot cocoa stand at Robbins Hill Farm on sledding days.
• Organized outdoor activity such as snowman/castle competitions, or building a warming hut at the pond, with hot cocoa!
The Friends of Spy Pond flyer is in THIS issue! One extra day in February in this leap year and then the Lion leading to the Lamb. I can’t wait to see you all playing outside again in just a few more weeks, and then we can celebrate making it through another New England winter together.
Tags: activities, The Leaping Issue 15(1), travel, winter