OCT. 20, 1906: “”The corn husks are a foot and a half thick, and
all the stalks lean to the west. The geese, ducks and chickens are
growing a coat of fur under their feathers and are rubbing borax on
their feet to harden them up.””[neWLine]
The Era on Oct. 20, 1906, examined the signs and foretold a hard
winter.[neWLine]
To quote further: “”All the one-eyed owls are leaving the
country a month earlier than usual, and the bob-tailed squirrels
are laying in sweet potatoes, as well as nuts, for winter
provisions.””[neWLine]
“”The farmer who has taken the trouble to investigate has found
that all the toadstools on the old logs have wrinkles on them. The
last time this happened, we had winter weather that froze the
handles of plows.[neWLine]
“”Rabbits are sitting around with a humped-up look to them, and
field mice have wrinkles in their tails. If this means anything, it
means 20 degrees below zero from November to
May.””[neWLine][neWLine]
HOW COLD?: Whatever else they may or may not have had 100 years
ago, they had great language skills. “”Cold enough to freeze the
handles of plows.”” Just thinking about it gives us goose
bumps.[neWLine][neWLine]
WOOLLY BEAR: He was holding the “”little devil”” in his hand
last week, describing its variegated coloring over the
phone.[neWLine]
Lance Begin of Bradford reported that the “”little devil”” –
whose crawling around was tickling his arm – was a woolly bear
caterpillar known for its alleged ability to predict the winter
weather.[neWLine]
As he described it, the caterpillar’s front end (“”head”” just
doesn’t seem like an appropriate word for a worm-like creatures)
was brown for the first eighth of an inch, followed by a quarter
inch of black, with the remainder of its body being
brown.[neWLine]
In other words, most of it was brown. That, of course, is good
news if you believe in such things.[neWLine]
The caterpillar’s first section correlates to the beginning of
winter, its second section to the middle of winter, and the third,
to the end of winter. Our interpretation, thus, is winter will
start off mild, have a short but brutal period in the middle, and
end with a long period of mild weather.[neWLine]
You know, kind of like every winter in Bradford.
