Chilly memories

When I was 11 years old, I started delivering papers along First Street. My brother and I started in the middle of January. We both went to Robert Moore School. School days did not end until 4:00 p.m. then and all the carriers would run and walk to the Times which was then located on Church St. where the Border Services facility now stands. It was almost a mile to pick up our papers. So too was the distance the kids in the west end travelled.
It was much later that the Times began dropping off papers throughout the town for its carriers.
My parents worried abut our being warm. We were outfitted in felt boots over which rubber boots were worn.
My grandmother Cumming knit us warm woolen socks. She also knit us Tuques. I think that the tuques went the whole winter without ever being washed. We didn’t have a spare. Gloves and mitts may have gone missing, but never a tuque.
Every tuque had a fluffed out ball on top. By the end of winter that ball usually had fallen off.
Lined corduroy pants and long underwear helped keep us warm. Both of my grandmothers knit us mitts that would fit inside leather outers. Our hands were always warm and when we finally wore gloves, we were disappointed that we found our fingers getting cold.
Everyone wore tuques. They were not the fashion statement of today, but were solidly knit and everyone at school wore one. We’d take them off entering the school and our hair stood on end. Traditional colours were browns and navies for boys. The tuques that girls wore were white, or red.
We cuffed the tuques at the bottom to put a double layer of wool over our ears to keep warm. Our hockey teams played on the outdoor rinks and under the leather helmets, we wore our tuques. That was the lining that kept our heads safe.
Papers were delivered in darkness from the beginning of December through to the middle of February when daylight finally started sticking around in the early evening. I don’t ever remember being too cold delivering papers, but I remember always being glad to be able to drop off that final paper in the arena manager’s office and just become slightly warmed, before walking that last block home.
I remembered all of this recently on one of our nightly walks. I have dug out a fleece tuque that was one of my sons when they were growing up. I can throw the hood of my jacket over my head, and the bite of the northwest wind is blunted. I am warm.
When the wind stands still, the tuques more than provides warmth for these cold January nights. The cloudless night skies of this past week has the full cold January moon lighting the roads and sidewalks. Modern fibres have replaced my felt shoes. Overshoes were replaced long ago with boots that now repel water.
Times have changed, new fabrics have come along to keep us warm, yet the old fashion tuque that has been used for centuries, today, is as popular as ever in keeping our heads warm.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher