Happy last day of January 2020! We’ve made it through the coldest month of the year. The darkest of mornings. We had the fortitude to take down the pretty holiday lights and can now finally enjoy some extra natural light.
(It’s there, I promise – the clouds just keep getting in the way). When we see a sunset, we will see it later and later. I know this, of course, because I check it daily on the New York sunrise/sunset calendar.
It’s true that some people do not dislike the winter. I remember when my sister took her children skiing once and came back to breathlessly extol its virtues. “There were families,” she told me, “they were smiling and enjoying themselves!”
It was like a revelation: fortunate people don’t spend the winter climbing the walls. They take chair lifts! So…if you have a spare $500 I highly suggest a day of skiing with your family of 4. Otherwise, you can do like I do and take a nice, brisk walk.
In fact, I found a January 1913 newspaper article supporting that notion:
“Sometimes a woman will feel all out of sorts, heavy, miserable and blue. Her first thought is of food; she believes she needs a good cup of tea and something to eat. But she does not. What she needs is fresh air, a brisk walk, and upon returning home a light lunch…”
Madame Armand, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 24, 1913
So dictatorial and yet so sensible! I love that tone of the old newspapers. Today’s pictures feature Ferris and Clara enjoying some outdoor time. Based on their clothes they are either on their way to or coming back from church.
They are clearly having fun trying to scale the fence and then the tree. It immediately struck me that my husband and I would never allow our own girls to do that in their Sunday best. Or maybe…at all…because ‘fences aren’t meant to be climbed on’.
Even as I say it and know it as my voice I realize how needlessly overprotective it sounds. Funny how we imagine our grandparent’s generation to be the conservative one and yet, in many respects, they gave their children more freedom to explore.
Then again, Ferris got kicked in the head by a cow and lived with a dent in his head. Hard to get it right with parenting!
In the last few weeks at school, my daughter has been making crafts for Chinese New Year. (They introduced a Mandarin language program there which has been amazing). She just brought home a puppet dragon that she made using a paper bag.
This morning she put it on her hand and waved it around. The dragon said, “Hello, my name is Ava. I like rainbow color. Goodbye” and I only know this because my daughter translated it from Mandarin for my benefit. It makes me so proud that – at 8 years old – she has already moved somewhere beyond my scope of knowledge.
In 1913, very few New Yorkers had probably heard of Chinese New Year’s or knew whether it was the Year of the Rat or the Year of the Monkey (or that such a thing even existed). To my happy surprise, though, it turns out that my grandmother was born in the Year of the Rat…the same cycle we are entering as of January 25, 2020.
Born on January 1, 1913, my gram just fits into that 1912 cycle. Women born in the year of the rat are said to be organized and to place great value on the family. (She did!) They are also known for producing large numbers of offspring (5!) I also found the adjectives “adaptable”, “observant” and “stubborn”.
You might think “adaptable” and “stubborn” clash with each other and yet grammie managed to be both, I think. You don’t have five children without learning to adapt. You don’t live into your 90’s without learning to adapt. But this is the way I make my cranberry sauce, darn it.
Did grammie do a daily walk? Or did she have a daily swim? I must be getting old because I can’t remember. All I remember is that she never missed her daily exercise and that I’m sure she’d agree with the last bit I clipped from another January 1913 newspaper:
Fresh air and sunshine! Nature’s two great prophylactics – to be had without money and without price – to be had for the taking – and like most things so easily obtainable, too little prized…
Minerva B.T. Angell, Domestic Science Expert, MIT, January 26, 1913 edition of The Buffalo Sunday Morning News
A big hug and a winter smile to you all!
I loved, loved this blog! In my opinion it is one, if not the best of all. It also brightened the winter doldrums for me. Thank you, my talented and beloved daughter!