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Feb. 17, 2010
By Milli Gilbaugh
NORTH LIBERTY LEADER
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Enough is enough! As I watched yet another layer of snow pile on top of the not-yet-melted residue of the last three or four snow storms, I began to wonder if life as a bear might be infinitely more preferable. I've lived in Iowa all my life and I've been right in the middle of some fairly spectacular snow storms and witnessed the best efforts of those air masses from Siberia sliding down over the Yukon. I seem to remember some dandy snowstorms in the 1930s and 40s. In my hometown of Knoxville, where everybody burned coal in their furnaces, the snow was white only on the day it fell. Twenty-four hours later, it was speckled gray with coal soot and the whole town smelled like burning coal. It snowed on my birthday, April 18, during my senior year in high school - the only time I remember school having been canceled because of snow. Our reaction to this unexpected vacation was to bundle up and walk downtown (ostensibly, to visit the library) to shop, browse, and hang out for most of the day. In the 60s, a heavy, wet snow in May piled up on the leafed-out trees and shrubs in Iowa City and did lots of damage to my newly-planted Chinese elm hedge.
Early winter snows usually delight me with their whipped-cream wonderland and brilliant reflected light. After the first of the year, I'm ready to hibernate and wait for spring. I'll gladly make a bowl of popcorn and curl up with a good book until I absolutely have to venture out and liberate my car from the drifts. It takes a severe shortage of groceries, important meetings or hard-to-get appointments to lure me out with the windshield scraper and ice-melting pellets.
Our ancient ancestors may have come as close to hibernation as humans ever have. They hunted, gathered, and stored food during the rest of the year, storing up fat and energy in their bodies as well while food was plentiful. When winter came, they spent a lot of time sleeping, huddled inside, conserving body heat and energy as well as fuel for a warming fire and whatever bit of cooking they had to do. And, a few centuries ago, some people in Europe attempted to hibernate during the coldest part of the winter. Since the human body is not capable of achieving a true dormant state, their attempts resulted mostly in malnutrition, loss of muscle and often-severe organ damage. I think it's too bad that theory didn't work out, though. Wouldn't it be nice to wake up in the spring and discover that you'd slept right through childbirth, and that all that accumulated fat had melted away and you were bikini-slim again!
Since I can't actually hibernate, I do the next best thing, at least for me. I travel - not physically - but in my head. I can just about count on one hand the number of times I've been outside of Iowa in my lifetime. You may think this puts me at a disadvantage but, actually, I think it gives me an edge. I'm not limited by reality. I can travel wherever I want to go and the things and the places I see are limited only by my imagination. And I can choose incredible guides to lead me in my travels. I can go with Dick Francis to horse races in England, visit a picturesque village in Ireland with Maeve Binchy, explore a windy castle in Scotland, and spend a few weekends as a guest in a baronial manor house near London with Agatha Christie. I've been to the California vineyards and explored the Sea of Cortez with John Steinbeck. I experienced some battles of the Civil War and witnessed the horrors of the Spirit Lake Massacre under McKinley Kantor's guidance. Frank McCourt showed me intimate glimpses of the struggles of Irish immigrants and Janet Evanovitch has led me on more than one merry chase through Trenton, N.J. I've even attended a game of Quidditch with J.K. Rowling and watched Harry capture the elusive Golden Snitch!
This current winter has become tediously long and, as I get older, the snow, ice, and cold have become increasingly inconvenient. There have been days when I longed to be able to just stay in bed until spring but, since I can't hibernate, I think I've found a pretty good alternative.
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