Just Pondering: Cold snaps

By Allyson McCaw on December 22, 2022.

Baby its cold outside! No truer words have been spoken. Yikes, we have been in a deep freeze. However, this too shall pass but it got me thinking about past cold snaps and how we survived.

Can’t we all recall the times as kids when someone on the playground dared you to touch your tongue to the flagpole when it was minus-20? And of course, you bent to peer pressure and did just that! I can still feel the pain of ripping off several layers of taste buds and tasting blood in my mouth for hours.

Or how about when your mittens got wet, and the cold froze the tips of your fingers? That horrible numbness and burning when the circulation starts up again.

All of us parents remember bundling your three-year-old up in ski pants, coat and all the outer trappings when the famous words rang out, “I have to go pee.” Or as a teenager your mom chiding you because we were “too cool” to wear a toque or boots to school and then having to walk a country mile with a wind chill of minus-30, and hating to admit she was right.

However, for every painful event there was always a good memory attached too. We spent hours skating outside on the dugout, maneuvering around cow patties, and playing shimmy. We tobogganed down the coulees and trudged back up the hills until we were sweating under all our layers. We built ice forts and tunnelled hidey holes in the snow drifts for hours. Sure, we complained about the cold, but the fun factor always won out. Mom would make sure we had everything from long underwear to two sets of mittens and off we waddled like ducks to make snow angels.

I know I am too soft and way too comfortable to push myself to bundle up and get out when the thermometer drops but I am also grateful for the cold. It reminds me when the sun shines, and the warmer weather comes it feels so good and I should not take it for granted.

Let us embrace this cold snap and rejoice when the gauge climbs back up. Remember, it can always get worse!

Stay warm and well.

Allyson McCaw is a Medicine Hatter

10
-9