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District 2 Boys Basketball: Holy Redeemer too much for Lakeland

District 2 Girls Basketball: Felix free throws lift Williamsport over Wilkes-Barre in girls basketball

So how are you coping with winter?
				Unless you&rsquo;re working outdoors &#8211; and my heart goes out to the people who have to so that we can be warm and safe &#8211; you&rsquo;re probably at least marginally better off than your parents and grandparents were this time of year.
				Let&rsquo;s take a look at coping with cold and snow 1930s -1950s style.
				Heating the House: Nearly everyone in these parts heated with anthracite coal. What that meant was ordering a ton of pea or chestnut from time to time, unloaded noisily via a chute into your basement. From there, you hauled it by the agonizing shovel full to the furnace, where you&rsquo;d keep the fire going. The warmth was distributed via ducts as hot air or by pipes as steam heat to the various rooms &#8211; unless, of course your &ldquo;central heating&rdquo; was a big grating in the floor (and a lot of hope that heat would rise).
				Sidewalks and Steps: The upside of coal furnaces and stoves was that they produced, free of charge, big tubs of ashes that you&rsquo;d toss onto the sidewalk and front porch steps. Some folks would keep a bucket in the car for slippery situations, a device that was actually quite effective.
				Getting to Work: Wintry blasts and snowfalls were probably less trouble than today for most working people, since living as close as possible to your job in those automobile-optional days was fairly common in urban areas. Bus and streetcar service linked towns with one another and ran well into the evening hours. If you got off work at the store at 9 p.m., you&rsquo;d just head down to the bus stop.
				Hitting the Road: Here&rsquo;s where you might have a problem. Snow tires had not been invented yet, and the alternative was &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; big tire chains. Putting them on looked to me like a mystic art from the dark ages, but the older folks were all masters of getting your wheels rolling. Snap, snap &#8211; ready to go. As soon as the snow vanished, off they&rsquo;d come.
				Bundling Up: The school snow day, like the snow tire, had not yet come out of the laboratory. So it was that millions of moms &#8211; spying white stuff on the ground on a weekday morning &#8211; crammed the younger kids into bulky padded suits. Then, at the other end, teachers with master&rsquo;s degrees had to program time to extricate the children in the morning and get them back into the hateful things for the afternoon slog home. School buses? Cue the laugh track.
				Laundry Day: In the days when the home dryer was about as common as the Lincoln Continental, ropes or racks of freshly washed clothing run from room to room was winter&rsquo;s clothesline. The mom who thought she could fight nature quickly learned that shirts and dresses that froze out of doors looked embarrassingly Halloweenish when they stood up by themselves.
				Going Shopping: Even the direst weather report spawned no panic for bread and milk. The store was probably down at the end of your block.
				Quiet Time: Winter evenings, though, were priceless. Dad, home from work (maybe having walked), could nap before the family dinner. Kids looked forward to reading &ldquo;Joe Palooka&rdquo; or &ldquo;Dick Tracy&rdquo; in the evening paper. Living room or sitting room typically held a console radio (later a black and white TV) around which the family would cluster, or maybe a game table for parcheesi or jigsaw puzzles.
				Edge &#8211; to us, but not by much. Well, maybe!

Remember When: Winter meant more coal shoveling, ashes, bundling up