It has been a while since I have posted on this site. The writing has been going on, if not literally, at least mentally. When I finally think this would make a good post, it seems to fall flat, and I know you don't want too much dullness. One would think as a retiree I would live a life of intentional leisure, but it is not what I have accidentally chosen. No complaints, life is good, but quite different from those that I recall witnessing with my own grandmothers. Perhaps my own perspective has broadened as I have gotten solidly in that role.
I have told you that I am a Jill of multiple interests. It has always been so. One interest has been history and genealogy. I was one of those kids who always wanted a story from the true life of my adults when they were younger. When I requested this from my Dad his response was a grin and the question, "you mean when I was a little girl?" In this teasing way I heard lots of stories. I gave some thought to teaching history as my career, but was directed in a different direction that was every bit as good for me and I hope for my students.
As a historian I am regularly looking into the past one hundred years or so of the everyday life of the residents in the western part of the United States. As I write about it in my newspaper columns I have had current residents give me feedback and one that is interesting is the frequent comment about weather. People always wonder why I notice reports of weather in my historical research
Number one, I have been a farm wife for 63 years and weather is a big part of the daily ins and outs of an agricultural life, today just as much as it was a century ago. The first thing to note as the day begins, the weather report that is heard before calling it a day, in order to prepare for the next day's labors. #2, it is interesting to see the repeats of droughts, blizzards, hurricanes, volcano eruptions, tidal waves, etc. over the period of a whole century. At the present time it may sound like a certain weather pattern is the first that has ever happened and perhaps is so threatening, yet when one looks back over 100 years, usually it has happened more that once in those years past—and we got through it. Perhaps not without loss, but survived, sometimes even thrived, as the world recovered. #3 Weather is a world-wide item, what happens on the other side of our mother earth will very likely affect our immediate surroundings, given some time, and the winds, currents, sun and storm move around our revolving globe. How can we humans feel like we are in charge? Only in our imagination, regardless of our efforts when it comes right down to it. Just my opinion.
