If some old geezer tells you he walked to school in below freezing weather, he’s telling the truth. We’ve been enduring the coldest weather that some younger people can ever remember, but according to records, we’ve endured many colder days in the past couple of centuries. But, here in Indiana, they’re not only closing schools, but banks, and city services, and of all things, the United States Post Office. A Polar Vortex isn’t for wimps.
During my school years, our nation was half rural and half urban. We were still coming out of the depression and World War II. Times were tough, and if you had a job, you treasured it greatly. The thought of staying home from work on below freezing days would not have been considered.
That tough philosophy extended to the children of those hard working parents. In the winter, below freezing temperatures were often a fact of life. Before getting dressed, we children would first put on long underwear, and long wool socks. We had “snow pants,” which were loosely fitting woolen pants lined with cotton flannel. Along with those, you wore a matching jacket, similarly lined. I suppose those layers provided some extra protection. Wool stocking caps, mittens, scarves over our faces, and boots completed our outer wear before we left for school. Many families didn’t own a car, and so children walked to school.
My parents were Catholic, and we never missed a Sunday mass in the winter. My husband was raised Protestant in rural Nebraska, and his family always made it to Church on Sunday, no matter how cold it was. He also remembers getting up on many a below-freezing morning to milk cows before going to school. In an unheated barn, no less. He doesn’t remember ever suffering from frostbite.