Our Mild Winters and Summers

Some of you folks might think it’s been cold these last few days. Why, this is like the Bahamas compared to how cold it was when I was a boy on my father’s farm near Chesapeake City. I recall one of those bitter mornings when our cow was nearly frozen in her stall. When we milked her instead of the milk tumbling into the pail it came down as icicles and we had to snap off the squirts. Churning butter was a real chore that evening. But the cold was especially hard on our laying hens. Every evening we’d have to place hot water bottles in their nests so we’d have eggs for breakfast instead of ice cubes.

While I’m at it I’d better tell you about the hottest summer we ever had when I was a boy. Our summers now are just right compared those times. I recall one summer it was hot. How hot was it? It was so hot one afternoon that both of my father’s fields of popcorn started popping and blowing up into the sky. And then, when it began falling back to earth, our poor chickens thought it was snow and froze in their tracks. It was bad. We had to take them into the kitchen to thaw them out. So I certainly think that folks today should not complain about the good weather we’ve been having.