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Winter
The longest and harshest of Vermont's seasons, sometimes lasting just short of half of a year, winter offered the broadest range of leisure pursuits. In the largely agrarian society of the early nineteenth century, work in water-powered mills was inconsistent and outdoor labor came to a halt. Although chores continued indoors, winter offered the most time for leisure activity in the home and in the community. Well into the century, most domestic leisure time, at all levels of society, was devoted to reading -- primarily the Bible, religious tracts, the classics, history, and biography. Local newspapers were primarily informational, providing news of national or international importance, or business announcements. Local news was chiefly transmitted orally in taverns, through gossip, at church, or at other community events. Although contemporary religious and social mores discouraged women from reading novels, they persisted nevertheless. As the century progressed, reading expanded into a true leisure activity with novels gaining acceptance and fiction (albeit with moral overtones) and highly sensationalistic news stories appearing even in local newspapers. Periodicals, aimed at every interest and level of society, proliferated. Catalogs offered women (and men) the opportunity to view, if not order, every material thing the contemporary society had to offer. Free time was also used for letter-writing and keeping diaries. Children played indoor games. Adults, men and women, played card games such as whist and euchre -- an activity which endured throughout the century. Card-playing in the community at large -- pursued by such groups as the Union Club of Middlebury -- remained the purview of men. In homes fortunate enough to have a musical instrument, families played music or sang. Until mid-century, most music, in the home or in the community, was liturgical or inspirational in nature. With the passing of years, more secular music - usually sentimental or romantic - became widely accepted. Already in the 1850s there were apparently enough families who could afford or were willing to pay for pianos, to warrant advertisements in local newspapers. Both at home and in the community, women became the principal music providers of music, considered one of the "ornamental arts" suitable to their education. Children often received instrumental training in piano, flute and violin, but music usually was not considered a suitable pursuit for men. Later in the century music boxes and, in the 1890s, the phonograph -- although not affordable to most Vermonters -- made it possible to bring a range of music never thought possible into the home. Throughout the nineteenth century, winter outdoor sports remained the most consistent leisure activity. Skating on rivers, brooks, and creeks, sliding on hills and village greens and local hills, sledding for children, and sleigh-riding for couples and groups, provided hours of recreation and enjoyment for many generations. Skiing, which became a lucrative Vermont industry in the second half of the twentieth century, did not even make an appearance on the winter sports scene until the 1890s. As residents of largely self-sustaining communities
for the first fifty years of the century, Vermont residents spent much of
their winter time at parties, sociables, entertainments, and balls. The season
was especially rich in holidays and celebrations for such occasions -- Thanksgiving,
Christmas, New Year's, Leap Year, Valentine's, Washington's Birthday - usually
held in taverns, inns, hotels and, sometimes, school halls. After the 1870s,
these events became more frequent. Local schools and churches offered space
for numerous events sponsored by local musical and choral societies, dramatic
clubs, Sunday school concerts, church groups, Forefather's Day, and community-wide
celebrations. It was clear, however, that by the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, new buildings were needed to accommodate the unending round of community
social events as well as local and traveling entertainments, lectures, exhibitions
and balls.
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