Such horrid weather for Christmas - From the Cluttered Desk with Keith Roulston

To change the words of the Irving Berlin classic, first sung by Bing Crosby in the 1942 movie Holiday Inn, I’m dreaming of a green Christmas, just like the one I used to know.

 

With the snow having begun in late November, school sometimes being missed and highways already closed, I’m worn out already, especially following a winter last year when there was so much snow overhanging our roof that it pulled off our eavestrough.

 

As I indicated above in the alteration of the classic Christmas song, I only remember one green Christmas from my childhood years. It was a great disappointment to me, my brother Ken and my best friend Ross. I’m not sure if it was a year when we still had sleighs or one when we got toboggans, but I remember dreaming about being able to slide down a nearby hill on the snow.
In those days, my mother always hosted Christmas, which included my uncle Elliott and my mother’s mother and, some Christmases, my father’s mother and brother. In those days before snowblowers, they often had to park on the road and walk up the lane. Luckily, we had a short lane.

 

Given my grumpiness, it’s interesting to see stories on the TV that ski resorts are delighted to see the early snow. Many are predicting a good season given that they’re likely to be busy during the Christmas season this year.

 

But, back to life closer to home, I was in town the other day when the Blyth Festival seemed to have a good crowd for its holiday show, A Huron County Christmas Carol, but on one of the side streets, with playgoers parked on both sides of the street, there was only room for one lane of traffic. And we’re still in December, with the worst of January, February and March still ahead of us.
Although as I write this they are predicting warmer-than-normal weather toward the end of the week, for most of this late-fall it’s been well below the normal temperature of one to three degrees, depending on the date. Our neighbour who cleans out our lane for us has already made seven trips.

 

On the weekend there was one day that when we went to bed there hadn’t been any snowfall, despite the predictions. Next morning, after it snowed all night, we realized we had received more than predicted.

 

I had to plunge through snow to fill the bird feeder and replace the suet that the birds had gobbled up in record time.
Then, on Sunday afternoon, I realized we weren’t getting any of the TV channels we normally get. We have a satellite dish that, because of all the trees around the house, was set up at the very back of our property. I had to wade through three feet of snow for about 150 feet before I got to the dish, which was covered in snow. Once I brushed it off, we got the channels we regularly get - but by the time I got to the house, I was a walking snowman, with snow on my pants and all over my head and shoulders from ducking under snow-laden trees.

 

But then at breakfast this morning, Jill described the latest news from years of war in Ukraine and we realized that instead of talking about how hard we have it, we should be grateful for the good, peaceful life we lead. Whether in Ukraine, the Middle East in the homeland of the Christmas story, several locations in Africa, or southeast Asia where Cambodia and Thailand battle, there are wars in so many places. 

 

We have a peaceful country in Canada under a Prime Minister we can support, unlike our neighbours south of the border where they have the army occupying cities. In fact, the one concern Canadians might have is the insistence of U.S. President Donald Trump that Canada should be the 51st state of the U.S. (a “state” that is larger than the other 50 states put together).

 

So, despite the early onset of winter, we live very privileged lives as Christmas approaches. In general we live a richer life than I could have envisioned when I was growing up in the 1950s - except for the thousands who shiver in the cold in tents because they can’t afford extraordinarily high rents. I remember when we had relatives visit at Christmas a few years ago and their kids opened present after present, without time to actually play with any of the toys they had already opened.

 

It’s a far cry from my childhood when we got one gift from Santa Claus and one from my parents, and only later, when we were older, did we wonder how they found the money when they couldn’t afford an indoor toilet.

 

So, despite the gripes about weather, most of us live such fortunate lives these days. Certainly we may face a challenge driving (we go to Cranbrook this year) or flying for the holidays but, in general, we live so well this Christmas.