I have a new habit of listening to the talk radio station when I wake up in the morning. Maybe that means I'm getting old. This morning when I woke, the guy announced that the temperature was nothing...no temperature...zero. He was right. It took me two tries with the thermostat to get the temperature in the house somewhat livable. They relished announcing that when the wind is whistling at zero, it means the "wind chill" temperature is something like 30 below. Well, I have news for them. I have lived in Minneapolis when it really WAS 30 below, and it is shockingly cold. Today was nothing compared to that!
I remember when I was living in Minneapolis, at 18 years old, and walking out onto the porch in the morning and feeling like my lungs would go into shock. It hurt to breathe! The air was so cold it just froze in your mouth. We used to wear big fur collars and fur hats and I would tuck my chin into my collar so I could breathe the warm furry air while I walked to the bus stop on the corner. We also regularly wore pants under our dresses, as well as a couple pair of socks, and boots and hats and gloves and ... well, we wore a lot of clothes. Getting out of all those clothes so we could work at our desk for the day was quite an undertaking. I remember the ladies room at the ad agency having a big closet space for all our clothing. It took forever to get dressed again to go to the bus stop and home.
I also remember having to walk down tunnels of snow instead of sidewalks, and having to peer around the corners of the snowbanks so you wouldn't run into someone coming from the other direction. That sounds like a tall tale, but I swear it is true. I'm not sure we have snowfalls that high anymore! Minneapolis is beautiful, but wow, is it cold!
Memories of Minneapolis in the winter make Boston seem positively balmy.
Have a great day.
