Days Remaining to First Killing Frost

A very good friend wrote me to ask if the people here relate to time differently than the way American culture deals with time. Superficially, I do not believe that there is any difference. Fundamentally however, I suspect there are profound differences in the way the passage of time affects the culture in the US and the culture here. To speculate about such things, I think it is useful to think about the differences in climate. These differences may be the root of different attitudes toward time.

I think I am correct in saying that American culture was initially born out of a largely agrarian society. I imagine that in such a society, the hour of the day was not such a significant detail. But the week and month of the year must have been exceptionally significant. In most of the US there is winter. So an important activity would be gathering, splitting and storing firewood for the winter. Failure to accomplish this could easily jeopardize ones survival. There was and is a narrow period of time in which the soil could be prepared for planting. Another window of opportunity to plant the crops, and these two periods of time often bumped into one another so that there was a great urgency to get the ground plowed as soon as it was dry enough, by which time it was imperative that the crop be planted if it was to mature before the killing frost ended the growing season. Of course, provided all went right, depending on the crop there was only so much time to harvest it, store it or get it to market. Meanwhile the seasons for various fruits and vegetables would come and go very quickly and fresh fruit would be completely lacking in the winter unless measures were undertaken to preserve them while they were so briefly plentiful. So, much effort would be devoted to canning and preserving various things during the time when it was possible to do so. In our culture it seems inevitable that an attitude would develop regarding time. Boiled down to it's essence that attitude must have been, "there isn't enough time to waste one second". There probably wasn't. The farmer who decided to plow his field tomorrow might find it to wet too plow. By the time it was dry enough, it would be past time to plant, and an early frost or even a normal frost might destroy a years effort before it could come to fruition. The wife who decides to can gooseberries next week might easily find that the birds decided not to wait a week before eating the fruit. It might seem trivial, a lack of fruit preserves during the winter, but I doubt that this was a luxury, there are such things as scurvy and beriberi. In the US, to be lax with time almost certainly would mean lack, financial ruin, or death.

While the bank will still own a slothful farmers farm, technology has moderated much of the urgency. Yet the impact on our way of thinking, on our relationship with time can not change so fast. Our ideas are influenced by people whose ideas were influenced by people who might really have died if they skipped a days work. Furthermore, industrialization did nothing to relax our relationship with time, rather it honed it to a very sharp point. The factory whistle blows at precisely x:xx, and if you are not there, your out of a job. To an individual living during the industrial period of the US, the minute of the day became critical.

Now in contrast consider Belize. In previous times, and to some extent now, firewood is gathered. It was and sometimes is still used for cooking. I don't know, but I imagine firewood is gathered whenever the opportunity and inclination happen at the same time. To my knowledge, no one lays in a substantial supply of firewood. For one thing, I think it would rot before it was used. Farming here seems to be largely concerned with trees. Avocado, breadfruit, plantain, and I don't know what all else are significant parts of peoples diets here. Certainly, annual crops are grown. In Mexico. Actually the Mennonites grow an enormous percentage of the vegetables. People do have gardens. I met a man in Chunox who mentioned that each year he grows between 500 and 800 tomato plants. On Google Earth, I think I can see his fields from orbit.

Certainly there is an enormous expenditure of effort in something like this. But consider how it relates to time. I have been told you can plant tomatoes every month of the year. Bananas and plantain take nine months to bear fruit and also can be planted any month. Other fruits have a short period of time during which they are ripe, but something is ripening all the time. A few people do can up preserves here. I am told that when canning mangos one uses the green ones. Probably a pectin issue or something. The point is, here people can fruit because they want mango, or pineapple jam, not because that will be their only source of fruit at any point.

Many of the people here work at least as hard as our ancestors ever did. However, in the past, perhaps very little of that work was connected to any sort of urgency regarding time. Fish need to be caught eventually, but they will be there. Fruit needs to be gathered, but it will fall from the tree when it is ripe enough. Lots of things need to get done, and they do get done, but not if there is anything else better to do, and certainly not if it is going to rain.

I suspect that deep down, the people here have a very different attitude toward time. The easiest way I might summarize that attitude is, "Winter never comes here".