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| Ruidoso, New Mexico, Dec. 27, 2015. (Photo by Anna Pilkington) |
No matter whether you're snowed in this December day or experiencing unseasonably warm weather, take a few minutes out of your day to write a letter to a friend or relative. The weather has been big news this year all around the globe. Including information about the weather will not only be interesting to your letter's recipient, but it will also preserve your perspective for the future.
For example, almost 150 years later, we know what the weather was like in Texas in December 1869 through the letter of Adela Vick, the daughter of Little Berry Vick and Mary Caroline Boyd Vick, to her aunt Amanda Boyd back in Mississippi. She talks about sleet and rain. The letters were transcribed and analyzed by Jack Landers on the RootsWeb website. The brackets indicate some corrections or information he added to make the letter a little more understandable.
Caldwell Texas
Dec. the 28, 1869
Dear aunt [Amanda Boyd]
I seat myself to write you a few lines to let you know that we are all well
at this time and hope to find you enjoying the same blessing[.] [W]e have
got to Texas[.] We have camped in a mile of Caldwell town[.] [W]e have all
been washing today while the men was looking at some land. We was water
bound about three days. We took a road and went around to head the creek
and we come to a marsh and it was sleeting and they rode through it and
could not find a place to go out and they got a leader and we all followed
him until he could pick the best place and Beeb fell the[n] Fan fell and
they had to come back and help[.] [A]ll the other mules was all down at the
same time and pappa went on out and I was driving Joseph[']s wagon and Fan
fell again and went under the water three times and they pulled the mules
out over the land and got some oxen an[d] pulled them out. When we got to
Delhi we got on the cars and went to Monroe[.] [I]t was about forty miles[.]
[I]t took us until nine oclock in the night and it rained the hardest rain
in the morning that ever fell[,] so they said[.] I was asleep. Mother and
Papa was all sick that morning. I have been sick about half the time[.] I
had one chill[.] Mat had nine and has not got well yet. We camped in ten
miles of cousin Virginia Mathis[Matthews-?][.] [S]he is living in Limestone
County[.] Mr[.] Mathis['s] [Matthew's-?] brother-in-law told us that she was
well and doing well[.] [H]e said that Uncle Young McDowell was still living
in Arkansas. I believe I must come to a close. You must excuse all mistakes
and bad writing[.] I had to write in the wagon on the trunk. I send my love
to aunt Nancy and family.
Adela Vick
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