Winter’s Chill in 2018

The year 2018 began with Arctic temperatures. Many areas of the country have endured Arctic temperatures for the beginning of 2018.  Ontario, New York  was minus 8 degrees several days ago while my home in North Carolina had temperatures in the teens.

 We escaped the cold. My husband and I traveled to Thailand. We needed a bit of rest and recuperation for a while.  This land had temperatures in the 80s.  We could swim there in warm pools and the ocean. Although we enjoyed our stay, we did feel a bit sorry for our friends back home. They were suffering from the cold and illness.Other decades experienced bitter winters, too. The winters of 1976 and 1977 had record snow.  At one time, the snow was almost six feet deep on the ground. Drifts of snow were over twelve feet high.  This was an enormous amount of white stuff!  Snow drifted up to the eaves of our ranch home. It also covered most of our windows, blocking out the light. As a result, it forced us to keep lights on in the daytime.

A century ago, winters in Ontario, NY were harsh. I related some of these experiences in my book, Ella’s Secret Gift.  In the story, Ella confronted a wall of snow when she opened the door. That sounds incredible, but it’s true! That actually did happen to me once after a winter storm.

If you can’t escape the weather, make the best of it. During the winter of 1977, our children had a grand time in the snow. They tunneled through it and made igloos. The snow remained for over a month. Therefore, they  had a fantastic white playground to delight them during much of the winter.