The Coldest Winter

Winter, it seems, has finally arrived in Minnesota. When was the last time it actually got below zero? We've been spoiled. Many of my kids in the one act play were complaining how cold it was at practice on Friday night. I didn't think it was that bad. I was reminded of all those stories adults used to tell when we were kids. You know the ones: how they had to walk five miles to school through a raging blizzard, uphill both ways. Here's a true winter story, as I remember it.

During my freshman year in college, winter of 1978, it stayed really cold. (It might have been the year following, my sophomore year, 1979, but I don't think so.) We were on the quarter system at the University of Minnesota back then, and our winter quarter started right after New Year's -- January 2 or 3 -- and ran for ten weeks, which would have been through early March. That quarter, the temperature never rose above freezing; the high temperature for every one of those days stayed below 32 degrees. I remember trudging across a snow-laden campus, leaning into bitter winds. And we never complained; it built character. Okay, we complained, but it was cold for a long, long time, nothing like the current winter.

Kids these days.