In the apartment where I lived when I was a boy, my bedroom was farthest from the gas space heater in the dining room. It didn’t matter which of the two “kid’s” bedrooms I was in. They were the same distance from the heater. This time of year, it would start to be quite cold at bedtime. I always felt fortunate to have a pierzyna, a down-filled comforter.
Getting into an extremely cold bed was quite the laborious process. The pierzyna eventually did its magic, but it didn’t retain heat or simply gather it from the air. Once an area was warm, the pierzyna never let a single degree escape, but it could take a minute or two, and it required a warm person beneath it to provide the heat. So I would crawl under the heavy blanket, squeeze into as tight a ball as I could, and let my body heat slowly build up. As I felt warm and comfortable, I would very tentatively poke out an arm or leg until that area grew warm. Before too long, maybe ten or fifteen minutes, I could finally stretch out fully and get to sleep. Sleeping under a pierzyna was one of the truly wonderful parts of winter when I was a child.
I don’t know why they went away, but they did. When I was a teenager, the pierzynas went to the attic and didn’t return. I didn’t pay too much attention to them for a long time. I could have used one when I was assigned to St. Columbanus and the rectory heat seldom worked, but I never really thought about looking through my parents’ attic. I rescued them when they moved to Tinley Park. I salvaged four of them, took them to be cleaned, and stored one myself and three in the garage at my sister’s house.
The pierzyna has finally made its reappearance on my bed. I’ve always preferred a cold bedroom. If we didn’t have a researcher boarding in the rooms below mine, I would have the thermostat a lot lower than it is. With flannel sheets and a slightly warmer room, I don’t need to follow the old ritual for getting into bed, but there is something very wonderful about having a pierzyna to hold in all my body heat and make sleeping such a comfort.
I don’t miss a great many childhood things, but I’m really happy to be using a pierzyna again. I hope that you have a warm and comfortable place to sleep as well.
God bless you!
Fr. Phil Cyscon
What a great reflection Its sometimes hard to believe how we treasure our youth and it really wasnt that long ago Peace!
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