Homebodies - Coffee talk...

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Published on Saturday, January 14, 2017

By Rita Friesen

The Neepawa Banner

We live in Manitoba. Most of us by choice. Whenever folks meet the common ground topic is our weather. Coffee talk. Weather.

One of my sisters has made her home in a warmer climate, part time Australia, part time Thailand. Okay, not only warmer climate, but a much warmer climate. She choose it and loves her homes there. Our conversation frequently touches on the weather. She posts pictures of her, sunglasses, hat, light coloured clothing, with cute captions like ’37 degrees in the shade, no wonder I look a tad frazzled’. I cheerfully reply ‘only minus 18 and no wind, took the dogs for a long walk.’ We are different in many ways.

My sister has friends all over the world, and continues to follow life in Manitoba in pictorial form on facebook. She asked me this week if Manitobans have become wimpy, all the posts about piles of snow and trenched lanes and shrouded windows. She, and I grew up in rural Manitoba and recall distinctly long, cold, snow covered winters. We reminisced about travelling from Graysville to Kane to visit grandparents, and driving down a highway that was, simply put, a trench. The plows maintained a space wide enough for two vehicles, and you could not always see over the sides. We recalled the year the family Oldsmobile got stuck in the middle of the field road to the neighbours, and remained there to spring. (Remember field roads – shortest distance between two farms and smoother than the washboard roads!) Our father drove the school bus that year and like everyone else in the rural parts of our province, we got to school with real horse power – two horses and a wooden ‘van’, some had straw on the floor for some insulation, and many had a small wood stove at the front. Talk about safety, for it was not unusual for a van to slip off the track and land on its side. But I digress. Back to Manitoba’s cold and snow.

 I pointed out that it was partially the timing of the storms that aggravated the people. One for Christmas, another for New Years and another one for good measure. I explained that the wonderful long, open, mild fall had lulled us. Perhaps this was a ‘new normal’. Then I checked the stats. Winnipeg had the most snow in December since 1908. They received 80 cm in that month alone, with the average annual snowfall being 114 cm. Then I reflected on the fact that when we were kids, farm kids, our life style was so very different. Yes, we had to shovel to get into the barn, and yes, we sat out three day blizzards, but no one was desperately trying to get out and get to a job. That came later. The long cold winter, the winter of the big snow, it was just the way it was, Ah, said my sister, life styles and expectations have changed.