This winter is the coldest on record in Duluth since the winter of 1874-75. People 139 years ago might have lacked many of our modern conveniences, but they dealt with the cold better than we do.
Take nightcaps, for example. Why don't we all wear a hat to bed anymore? The practice is as traditional as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," published in 1823, with "mama in her kerchief and I in my cap." On a cold night with your head the only thing sticking out of the covers, a hat seems appropriate.
"A Christmas Carol," published in 1843 and featuring Ebenezer Scrooge on a nighttime adventure, wouldn't be right without a nightcap as part of Scrooge's costume. The story features bed curtains as an important plot point, too. Wouldn't that be nice? Instead of heating my entire house each night, we could just keep the space around the beds warm.
Moving out from there, I think my bedroom could use some tapestries. You see rich women sewing on them in movies, and they're frequently seen on the walls of castles. Blankets for my walls -- I could use some of those.
In the Disney movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," set during World War II, a house has curtains in the doorways. These draft-stoppers are all that's needed to make the house seem ancient.
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The girls in "Little House on the Prairie" (set in the 1870s) use a bed warmer full of coals to warm the bed before getting in. Elizabeth in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (about 1750) uses one of those for a weapon when pirates invade her bedroom -- and as the name would suggest, she lives in the Caribbean, not the coldest place on earth. Her maid puts the pan in bed with her, a historical mistake because that would be too hot. Bed warmers were used and removed before a person got in.
My home has a fireplace, but it's best on damp days that aren't very cold. When it's as cold as last week was, you need to keep that fire really going to stop cold air from coming down the chimney. One of Ben Franklin's stoves, invented in 1741, would be nice, radiating heat around the house better. Unlike the practical cast-iron stoves of the past, however, my fireplace is mostly for show.
I was looking up other ideas and came across -- and this is what they named it -- "Historic Scotland Technical Paper 14," which asked, in part, "How do we achieve thermal comfort in older homes?" It makes the point that people used to live comfortably in much cooler homes than what we see today. "Exactly my point!" I thought to myself.
The authors call it "creating thermal microclimates," and one of their tips is to put on a sweater. Remember that when your kids complain they're cold: "Why don't you create a thermal microclimate by putting on a sweater?"
The paper also described a chair that looks a little like a coffin, a rocker that people would use to sit in front of the fire, enclosed on the top by a box that can be lined with wool blankets. Weird as it looks, sitting in a box would be warmer than sitting in a big room.
On these cold days, modern lifestyles start to look a little backward. One look at my heating bill, and I'm close to bringing livestock into the house.
Beverly Godfrey is a News Tribune copy editor and columnist. You can reach her at bgodfrey@duluthnews.com .
