When you woke up in the morning...in my day...the windows would be all frosty. My Mom would say that Jack Frost had been there. In those days we didn't have the modern windows of today. Those old windows leaked a lot of warm moist air from inside the house where it accumulated on the outside storm window and froze. A squeaky clean window only produced a more solid sheet of frost that looks more like sleet than frost. In order for the frost to form patterns a few streaks need to be present on the pane. This slightly soiled streak is necessary. In other words a dirty window gave the best result. Smudges on the window gave the frost a starting point, something to cling to. The frost usually starts forming at the outside edge of the window, then it will follow along the streak, whichever direction the streak goes. I was creative even in those days. I loved to get to those windows before my Mom got up and do my little hand prints and simple drawings. I would put my mouth up to the window and huff and puff and make the frost melt and water would run down the pane. I even licked the frost sometimes...to see if my tongue would stick to the glass. If Mom was up...she didn't want me to do my "drawing" because when the frost disappeared the design would show up on the window...so I had to get up very early before daylight to get the job done. We had an old furnace and when we went to bed the house got really cold. We still slept with the windows cracked in the bedrooms. Mom believed in breathing fresh air. I would wake up in the morning and sometimes find snow on my bed. I could huff and puff and see my breath it was so cold. We vacuumed the house with coats on and had the door open to air the house out. Ahh....those were the days. I very seldom had a cold.Balisha
4 comments:
I didn't know that about the clean vs. not clean windows. I grew up with beautiful Jack Frost windows and loved them. I would play with the frost and ice, too. Come spring, it was my job to wash them. Years and years later, when we already had four small children, we lived on an army base in an old barracks; our apartment was upstairs and there was no way to control the steam heat that came from a central source that supplied the whole army base. The only thing I could do was open windows. Those were the healthiest two years of our lives.
I grew up in S.E. Alaska - and while not as cold as northern Alaska it was still cold enough to make fairy frost windows - and the clouds of steam from our breath when we woke up. I miss those fairies coming in and making designs, but I love my double pane windows and how snug our house is now.
I remember those days so well Balisha. I remember those frosty windows and mother yelling at us for smearing the frost around and making the windows streaky. There are so many things like frosty panes that our children today know nothing about! Great post.
Hi Barbie, Jo, and Judy,
I think we all have the same memories of frosty windows and icicles hanging from the roof. I think we were healthier then...you had to be hardy to walk to school in all weather and do all the outdoor things we did. Have a nice weekend...we're having a heavy snow right now...Balisha
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