I was half listening to the weather report as I toasted my Butternut Squash ravioli with pine nuts and Butternut Squash Seed oil. We have had 51 inches so far, most of it in the last week. Winter averages for the State of NH are 66 inches. The highest snow fall on record was 122 inches in the winter of 1874-’75. I can’t imagine dealing with more than twice as much snow 140 years ago. Did anyone even live here back then? How did they move around during the day?
My great-grandfather was 29 that year. He drove many of the same roads I drive today. I was reminded of this post I wrote last January. Pardon my redundancy if you’ve read it…
A slim, cream-colored envelope arrived amid the circulars and bills. The upper left hand corner was embossed with black type bearing the address of the Town of Peterborough Cemetery Department. I have paid this bill automatically every year, but not given much thought to the ties that bring it to my mailbox.
My great-grandfather, Lucius died long before I was born. I know he sailed around the Cape in a whaling ship because he kept a journal. When he returned he settled in the house he built in Peterborough. His first wife died in childbirth and Lucius was left with a baby. He hired a young girl, Charlotte or Lottie as she was known, from a farm in western Massachusetts. Lottie moved in and cared for the child. Benjamin died at fourteen years old. Two years later, Lottie gave birth to my grandfather, Herman known as “Brim”. She was thirty years old and Lucius was fifty-eight. I don’t know many other details, Ancestory.com would be a good place to start, I suppose. The point of my story is not just that the history is fading, but that these people live on because I pay for a stone marker. I want the next person who receives this envelope, when I am no longer here, to know who and why.
Hospice taught me to pay attention to the details we all wish to avoid. In planning for the inevitable, we all become a bit more comfortable with the finality. The stone is a record of history and genetics that should be preserved and honored. There will be no more names added. Though I’ve lost all but one from that side of my family, the truth is that neither of my grandparents are really buried there. Brim, my grandmother, and their only child – my mom, are resting peacefully with my dad and brother in a lovely pond in New Hampshire. The move to cremation and scattering of the ashes in a sacred place occurred entirely in my lifetime so I never thought about burial.
When the invoice arrived for another twelve months of “perpetual care,” I decided to visit the plot. I came away wondering, if I have lost this much of the story of my family in three generations, what of my story? Who will be the person who pays this bill? Will they know I felt so strongly that the story should live on? Will there be a marker somewhere else for me that will at the very least tell the world the dates I was on this earth? That is why I write. Like my great-grandfather before me, and my grandfather who chronicled his drive across the country in the 1920’s and my mother who wrote stories and letters. Beyond the granite, we have the words that will survive into the hereafter.
I look out at yet another 5 inches of snow with another foot predicted over the weekend and think how difficult it must have been to deal with twice as much 140 years ago..
Therapeutic Misadventures 
Do you have granddad’s journal still. If so, start transcribing. Paper is so ephemeral! And actually if you really get curious, the files of the local paper (on fiche I suspect) and the treasures of the local historical society may yield more than Ancestry. This is where the “stories” live.
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I do have a copy and we donated a copy of my great grand dad’s whaling journal to the New Bedford, MA museum. I come from a long line of “journalers”!
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I do have a copy and we sent a copy of my great-grandfather’s whaling journal to the New Bedford museum along with some artifacts. You are right about the “real stories” living on through these written words…
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Now that’s snow.
(And I agree with Chris about the real “stories” Ancestry may be an interesting start, but not always documented/accurate info. courthouses and big geneology libraries like Clayton in Houston have access to ships records, property records and all sorts of stuff – may you can access on line from their websites….but warning once you start, you can get hooked by all the stories and glimpses of lives/past.)
Make a binder of paper copies of any stories/documents/pictures (make copies) you have – and a spare. And scan it all into computer/flash drive – and make copies….don’t trust one source. Many local libraries/historical societies welcome copies of things like this and are interested in preserving local history for future generations.
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We’ve had 54 inches in Hudson so far and more is coming.
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I think you are getting even more than we are. It should make for a lovely mud season!!
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Instead of plowing it they used to roll it with big, horse drawn rollers. That packed it down well enough so the sleigh runners wouldn’t sink in. I think the horses all wore horse snowshoes too.
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Ah, yes! I’ve seen those rollers in photos and museums. I wonder how deep the snow was that year after it was rolled. My horse wears snowshoes to this day, spiked shoes on the front for the ice.
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Love the nice circularity of your story. As I begin to write more of my experience in this life, instead of fiction, I always come back to the question ‘why do you write?’ It helps me keep going, this need to chronicle the here and now.
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Thank you Susan! I have never been good at fiction, life provides enough fodder for writing if you stay aware of the little things!
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The ski areas and snowmobilers must be loving the snow but, I for one, can do without it. I just saw the forecast and it looks like you are due for some more. I couldn’t imagine living in all that snow 140 years ago. I would have moved south. Far South!!
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Enjoy Arizona, Laura. I am hunkered down for the next foot due to arrive
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It certainly makes life interesting, Laura!
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So much snow boggles my mind. Paying for a headstone is something we do just the once here. My grandfather and grandmother are buried in the village church and I often visit and lay flowers and so does my youngest son. Like you, I will have no headstone but maybe someone will plant a tree and scatter my ashes.
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I’m with you, scatter my ashes and leave no trace. A tree would be nice, or a flower garden…
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