It is zero degrees outside as I type and even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I would live in a place that was this cold. Even with the westerly winds blowing off the central plains of Queensland in the winter, I remember wearing a ‘windcheater’ which translates into today’s culture as a sweatshirt with a central front zipper. That was all that was needed so you can know that it was not too cold where I was raised. As kids in the school playground, we used to lean into the wind and you could lean pretty far into it before you fell over, the winds were that strong. So, I cannot tell my children and grand children that things were so difficult that I had to walk uphill seven miles in the almost waist deep snow with no coat and no shoes, as I went to school, and coming home I still had to walk uphill in waist deep snow with no coat and no shoes. This story about going to and from school in snow is a story used to illustrate how difficult things were in the ‘olden days’ but to my children, I was so old they were convinced I was on a first name basis with Adam. All jokes aside, zero degrees is pretty cold, and even colder if the wind is blowing.
So, living in Arizona for the past 17 years, one gets pretty used to the warm weather. When we received our mission call to go to New Hampshire, visions of the cold and snow of Pennsylvania’s 20 winters came back into my mind. So how does one pack for such an adventure – we had to bring clothes and house hold items to at least get us through the Autumn. The clothes that are manufactured for the Arizona market are no match for the cold here in the North East USA. We had to pack light because all our worldly possessions had to fit into our car because we don’t have a towbar on the back of the car and we did not want to have to have one installed, so that we could pull a u-haul small trailer to carry our stuff.
I bought two small saucepans with lids, one medium saucepan and lid, and one small frypan and one large frypan, 3 metal mixing bowls and two measuring cups (one glass and one plastic and a set of small measuring cups. I packed up my legumes so that we could have something to eat and if I had left them in Az, they would have been one year older when I got back home. We bought an electric blanket our first night here as well as a quilt and two pillows. Other than a few books, we are camping out with the minimum of belongings. I guess we arrived in style compared to the Mormon Pioneers who crossed the plains in covered wagons for some and hand carts for others. Now that is really want I call minimalist travel and out of necessity they did not have time or money to pack anything much due to the threats against them, they ended up with a lot less than I have. They had a campfire each night they stopped and I had a motel with a bed and sheets and a room heater. We came in style!
If Sara and Jacob and family really do go to Potsdam as planned, I wonder what they will take with them and what they will have to leave behind? I know this for sure – they will have to go by plane at least part of the way. One thing for sure, the Markham family and descendants are a travelin’ bunch.
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