Odd Jobs

Odd only in the sense that most people alive today have never heard of the rigors of the changing out of the Storm Windows. The first home my parents ever owned was the Valley Falls house. As proud homeowners, or at least responsible homeowners, back in the '40's, a necessary chore was to take down the storm windows that covered the windows in the winter, definitely the downstairs windows and those upstairs if at all possible. The downstairs windows in the front of our house were about 8 feet tall, and in 2 sections, which hooked together at the center when they were installed and so the top part had to be detached from the bottom, taken off , and then the bottom section removed. The process necessitated the use of a ladder and at least 2 people. Those old wooden windows were so heavy and so large it took a lot os strength to hold them and lift them down. Getting the top section freed from the bottom section and then handing it down from the ladder to the person below, while simultaneously holding the bottom section in place took strength, patience and the will to succeed. Cracks in the glass were all too common, not to mention cracks in the relationship of the parents who had to do the heavy lifting. The side windows were also very elongated, the kitchen windows not quite so challenging, and the front upstairs windows were attacked by standing on the roof of the porch. To us, though, it was a hallmark of the change of seasons. Taking off the storms, giving them their spring cleaning before storing them for the summer followed on the heels of taking the parlor stove down for the season, and storing it as well. When we were kids those enduring chores lent an air of permanence to the seasons----all that activity presaged that summer would last forever.

But life does grow colder, and parents do grow older, and after a time, I don't remember when, the storm windows did not come down when spring came. Maybe a parent's back went out one year, or the metal brackets securing the windows together rusted them into a single immovable monstrosity; whatever precipitated the change, my father reasoned that the heavy storms which served to keep heat from the stove inside the house in the winter would likewise serve to keep the summer heat out, so the job was dropped from their itinerary. The windows got washed on the outside pane and the pane inside the house. The area between the 2 panes was left alone, except for the small spiders and other bugs that managed to infiltrate the area. no one seemed to really mind.