Recent cold spell does not impress

Real winter has arrived with lower temperatures than we have seen for a while.

Johnny-Come-Latelys talk about the record cold temperatures, but they have little way of knowing of the cold in years past when there have been really frosty times.

I remember times in the 1930s, '40s, '50s, and '60s when we had some record cold spells. During the 1930s, we butchered our beef animals and left them hanging safely until we could tend to the meat.

Running water in our irrigation ditches froze to the bottom. The Trinity River froze across so there was only a narrow strip of clear water in the center. My father used an ax to chop ice so we could cross in our rowboat to go to school and get our mail.

There was deep snow on the ground that melted on top on sunny days and refroze every night, making a crust so thick that I walked our little white mare on top. The thermometer read in single digits.

During the 1950s, when my late husband George still worked on the Fairview Placers Dredge on the Trinity River, the dredge sank and the insurance company paid to refloat and restore the dredge. The temperature was again close to single digits and the men worked in that cold, keeping fire in a warming shack so the men could work. I knit ear flaps for George to keep his ears from freezing.

We had reports from family in Alturas. Thermometers there recorded thirty below zero that year.

During the 1960s, when we lived in Enterprise, the thermometer recorded temperatures in the teens during cold snaps.

George used a blowtorch to thaw frozen pipes. I used my hair dryer to thaw frozen pipes in Oregon and again here in Anderson during the 1990s to thaw a pipe near an air vent in the garage.

Global warming?

Maybe we ought to use hot air from politicians to thaw our pipes.