When the nights are gittin’ chilly and the leaves begin to fade,
An’ the mercury’s down to thirty, ‘stead o’ ninety in the shade,
There’s a happy kind o’ feelin’ takes possession o’ the soul?
With the smoke house full o’ middlin’, and the coal house full o’ coal!
When the wintry winds are whistlin’ through the branches o’ the trees,
An’ the dead leaves are a-flyin’ and a-rustlin’ in the breeze,
You kin feel the vast contentment that over you will roll?
If the barn is full o’ fodder, and the coal house full o’ coal!
When the ‘skeeter’s ceased from troublin’ and the fly is chilled to death,
An’ the window-pane is written with the Frost King’s icy breath,
You kin dream about the Summer-time, an’ that old fishin’ pole?
If the pantry’s full o’ victuals, an’ the coal house full o’ coal!
When your supper’s been digested an’ you’re dozin’ in your chair,
Or you’re tucked between the blankets from the frosty, nippin’ air,
Why, your dreams will be the sweeter if you’ve helped some sufferin’ soul
Whose larder’s scant o’ victuals, and his coal house minus coal!
—When the Coal House’s Full by George W. Doneghy (1848 – 1917 Kentucky poet)
The wintry winds have been blowing in Brasstown today. Cold air has moved back into the area. Temperatures are forecasted to be in the low 20s the next few mornings.
Even though the rain and cold haven’t lined up right for me to have snow I am still enjoying the contentment of winter much like Doneghy described so long ago.
Last night’s video: Common Folks – Life in the Appalachian Mountains.
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Well, we made sure our pantry is full of vittles & the milk house is full of coal. Sadly our milk house is no longer a milk house; the big cooler is long gone & the water is disconnected. No cows to milk, much to my dismay. But we use the building to lay in our store of coal & as a deer hanging room.
Loved the peacefulness of this poem. Although, I suppose it wouldn’t be so peaceful if you had not had a smoke house full of middlin’s & a coal house full of coal. I sure have had winters like that in the past. When we were first married & trying to making it in our big, drafty house, we got to the point where my husband could only pour in 5 gallons of diesel a time into our furnace. The cold would sneak up on us & we’d realize that the heat had gone out. Got into a bad rut where all the $ went into the 5-10 gallons that we couldn’t set enough aside to get a full load of oil. That first winter it snowed every day in Feb & we had a new baby. My hubby went out on valentine’s day to start shoveling and was out there for HOURS. all of sudden, he left and came back with a run down plow truck from the 60s that our neighbor was selling by the road. He went down & told the neighbor we wanted to buy it, but he wanted to ‘make sure it ran right’, could he borrow it to test it out. LOL. He came back & plowed the driveway to “test it out”. Then we had to come up with the $. Man, in some ways I don’t miss those days, but in other ways I do. Our toddler would ride in that plow truck for hours with him. It lasted way beyond our expectations – Years. Glad we don’t struggle like that now.
What a beautiful poem! 🙂 I know a lot of people are already looking forward to Spring, but I’m still not ready for Winter to be over. I’d love to have at least one BIG SNOW! 🙂
WOW just loved this poem! Super descriptive and wonderful….living in southwest Pennsylvania we have four seasons and I enjoy them all and feel so very blest! Thanks Tipper and really enjoyed the new book you chose. It’s the highlight of my Fridays. God bless and stay warm❤️
I really enjoyed the poem. Another way to help us remember the old times. I loved the wood stove and cooking in the fireplace at my Grandma’s. Standing beside the wood stove or in front of the fireplace, burning one side and freezing the other….lol. The memories are so sweet. Thanks for reminding us all how good the simple life was.
Love the poem – so full of contentment and thankful for God’s blessings. I have always heard of winter as a time of the earth resting getting ready for spring.
What a beautiful poem! It truly describes how a body feels about the bounty put up! I love the rest winter brings and I love snow!
Great poem. Never thought I would hear anybody feel good about a coal bin full of coal. Those sure were some sweet days. That is when I remember my Mom finally having time to crochet. Time for soup beans and homemade soup, visiting, lining up applesauce cakes, and sledding off the hill. Loved the crunch of the snow. Back then that coal furnace sure did keep a warm house, and the red dog made a great driveway. Neighbors smiled a lot and visited. Never knew who would pop in. I lived the poem!
We had that weather a couple of days ago. Sleet, freezing rain, and rain brought down a lot of tree limbs with accompanying power outages.
I guess winter is what you make out of it. I know we don’t like the cold but there’s a reason for it. kills out alot of bugs and things. It’s so nasty here . So muddy and wet, wet , wet. we are so ready for Spring. Loved the poem this morning. Have a blessed and sweet day Tipper and Granny.
Enjoyed the poem. Awful chilly here in Johnston County, NC this morning but so thankful for a warm house. If your pantry is full and you have a warm place to be, how blessed we all are!! Stay safe everyone. Tipper, you have picked another good book!
I enjoyed this Winter thoughts. I remember as a child my Papaw & Mamaw Seal was still had their wood stove. we never got much coal we use wood. my Papaw would sit in a straight back chair between the stove and the window. He would sit there and witter on a piece of wood. It was so warm and cozy
in the kitchen. Mamaw cooking on her wood stove.
I love poems, some may not rhyme but that have meaning. I really enjoyed this, just want to thank you for sharing it. Hope you have a wonderful day!
Love the all of these ‘winter thoughts’. Love Blind Pig & the Acorn.
Here in NW Ohio it’s 18° with the real feel of 4° BRRR! Stay warm and comfy wherever y’all are today. Have a blessed weekend!
BTW…Love the new book, Miss Tipper! Sounds like it’s going to be a dandy!!!
Tipper, now don’t you feel a bit left out over some snow! There are ski resorts close by for you and the Deer Hunter to get your snow on! There’s even TUBING for folks like me who’d never ski! ( I mean look at Sonnie Bono and how he bought the farm splatting a tree.) If I could, I’d pack up a tractor trailer full of this wet, white offending four letter word, but it would melt before I got there unless I hit climate control. Then you could jump and frolic til the heart’s content. It’s times like these I find myself dreaming of beaches in Mexico…. Btw That wonderful poem actually made me colder reading it, but it’s a really excellent poem and as much as it pains me to pin this, no poet of today could come up with such an excellent poem! Creativity today is at an all time low and frankly insulting to anyone with artistic taste. It lacks any imagination or beauty.
Loved the poem. It paints a vivid picture. Thanks for sharing. We missed all but a thin sheet of ice here in southern middle Tn. Schools were out one day and late the next. We are very thankful we didn’t get what our western neighbors did. Yesterday the bitter wind was refreshing! My jonquils are full of bud and ready to pop open with the 60’s predicted this week. My second bouquet is ready to be replaced. There is a big frost this morning but the house is dripping with the sunshine. Hopefully we can dry out a bit until the next round. Take care.
He describes what would be uncommon nowadays, a mostly self a sufficient lifestyle that forms the basis for winter contentment. I remember when I was a boy getting coal before winter “set in”. We had a coal house, as did my uncle. Back then there were small-time mines around to go haul your own. I guess it was done on the honor system because I don’t recall anybody ever being there to pay. Dad always wanted “block” coal, the kind with the largest pieces ’cause it held fire better. After school bringing the coal in for the heating stove and wood for the cook stove was one of our chores along with drawing water and feeding the animals. Dad would ‘bank the fire’ before going to bed which meant fill the stove up. We’d watch those two coal buckets go down with mounting worry, dreading going out to get more if needed. Now that I’m reminded, I recall Dad calling his canvas cap with the carbide lamp bracket on the front his “bank cap”. I had not thought of those “winter thoughts” in many a year. No coal mines there now and I expect few, if any, coal-burning stoves. Back then a whiff of sulfur when ‘the smoke went to the ground’ was a hallmark of winter.
I really like this poem! I like the four seasons we have, yes, including winter. I’m thankful we live in an area of the country that we can actually see the seasons change and enjoy them.
A time when people were thankful and content just having the necessities to sustain life?
Enjoyed the post. The cold and rain haven’t lined up for snow here either.
Chilly here in Aberdeen NC . We are called The Sandhills region of the state. It’s 27 degrees & not going out of the 40’s at all. Brrr!!! I’m staying in for a day of tidying things up & some embroidery this afternoon. Made a big pot of beef/veg soup yesterday so supper is done. No worried. Have a blessed day all of you.
Just what I needed to read today. Think I’ll skip the morning news. Maybe go for a walk….
Love the meter, the rhyme and the sentiment. Well done, George Doneghy.
Me too, Don. Brought to mind the work of Robert Service.
What a terrific poem! Takes you right to an old mountain holler home, simple and primitive, a place so drastically different than todays world! But I feel a sense of extreme sadness over whelm me when I think “what would great-great grandpa think, if he knew how just how far off the beaten path much of our world has gotten today.” He’d say…”dont ever leave that old primitive mountain holler home, and stay as far away from the outside world as possible!”
Wow, was that a good poem. I sometimes a talkin’ like that. Old habits are hard to break. I try my best to speak proper grammar, but it sometime slips away. I wanted so much to listen to yesterdays book, but my Hubby loves your readings and he is out of town for a few days, so, lookin’ forward to listening with him on Monday. Our chillin’ temp is down to 37 this mornin’ and should be up to the mid 70;s later. Have a Blessed weekend.
I love poetry that rhymes. I hope it’s ok that I posted this to my Facebook page. That cold you’re getting now was with us earlier this week. Stay safe and warm.
It’s that time of year for the chilly weather but the 20’s were not quite what I had in mind. I was thinking we could start out winter with some cool weather not starting the winter season with full on winter!
Oh well, I guess winter will be winter!