Merriam-Webster doesn't address this term we so often employ at this time of year. But the Internet seems to think three R's is appropriate, so I'm going with that.
Well, it’s been cold here in Chicago – again! But that's no surprise.
When we moved here in 1983-1984, a friend in who grew up in
Sterling, Ill., warned us that it was a lot like Pittsburgh only more severe.
He was right.
The hot, muggy summers are a lot more so, as are the bone-chilling
cold winters. So, this year’s polar vortex, for which one local TV station
noted Chicago was the vortex, came as no surprise. Cold as can be and lovin’ it
(more or less).
It all brings back memories of our earliest Chicago winters, when we had just moved here from the more temperate climate of Pittsburgh.
During the winter of 1983-1984, and the year after as well, I was making the 75-mile commute each day from Palatine to Braidwood with Jay Johnson. We would leave early in the morning to arrive at Braidwood by 7 a.m., then set out on our return about 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. Working in a warehouse temporarily converted into office space, there were days we never saw the sun in that bleak midwinter.
Because of the extreme cold of 1984 and 1985, whoever’s turn it was to drive also ended up going out to start the car at lunch time, letting it run long enough to warm up and make sure things didn’t freeze up on us in the course of the day.
And so we revel, once again, in extremes, and anxiously await the spring thaw. Enough is enough; come on, spring!
