The coming week will turn colder than normal, and with that change comes the possibility of something uncommon even for Cook County: thunder and snow Saturday night.
Mr. Erickson has gone over the signs with me and agrees with the forecast. So if you happen to be at a dance Saturday evening and hear thunder, it may be worth stepping outside to see whether snow is accompanying the performance. I do not recommend remaining outdoors long merely for scientific curiosity.
The United States Weather Bureau is meanwhile warning of a “hard” winter, possibly the hardest since 1917. The forecasters themselves have declined to make so definite a prediction, noting instead that the last several winters have been unusually mild and that, if there is anything to the law of averages, we are due.
I have never found averages especially persuasive when standing outside in January.
In local affairs, the Board of Health has been occupied with the scarlet fever cases now under quarantine. A resolution asks every citizen to cooperate in guarding the health of the children and the community, to obey quarantine orders when issued by the health officer, and to report sickness promptly for the safety of both patient and public. The school, after being closed briefly, has been fumigated and ordered reopened.
John Donne observed that “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
Mr. Donne’s observation seems particularly suited to a small village. A case of sickness in one house concerns the houses beside it. A storm upon the lake concerns more than the fisherman caught beneath it. A weather station on the hill is useful only if the information gathered there reaches someone who needs it. Mr. Erickson and I understand that better now than when either of us first climbed the hill.
If Saturday night brings thunder with snow, Mr. Erickson will be at the tower observing it closely, provided the weather does not object to being observed. I shall be at the dance with Miss Fjell, where I expect the greater danger will be to my feet.
Editor's note: According to Wikipedia, "Gladys Henry Dick (pictured) and George Frederick Dick developed an antitoxin and vaccine for scarlet fever in 1924 which were later eclipsed by penicillin in the 1940s."