Remembering 20 years ago today, staring down from my Harriet Ave 2nd story apartment at the trickle of trick-or-treaters bundled up against the light snow beginning to fall. You couldn't tell what any of the kids were dressed up as. My roommate Wendy swore the snow would be gone by morning, that it was too early for anything to worry about. Another friend told me that I wouldn't need a real winter coat until just around Thanksgiving, so my first Minnesota winter coat, a down stadium coat, was on layaway at the Burlington Coat Factory. I put on my unlined one-button wool jacket and headed to the bus which would take me to my overnight job at Kinko's, across from Macalester at the time.
By the time I got to work, most of the trick-or-treaters had given up. My hiking boots hadn't kept my cotton socks from getting wet, so I pulled them off and laid them next to one of the copy machines to dry out. My coworker (not Jason Goodyear that night) had the radio on. They were now calling for 6-8".
Every few minutes it seemed the radio announcers upped the projected totals for this storm. 10-12" 14-18" over 20"....I couldn't see across the street, the snow fell so hard and fast, but I shoved anyway. Three times before morning. I couldn't say sunrise because it didn't seem to that morning.
The third time I shoveled, a woman pulled up in an SUV. She was dressed in a business suit. I was shocked because no one else came to the store over night and it was really cold. The temps had plummeted from the 40's to the single digits and the wind was whipping. I said to her, "I can't believe you're out in this." She said, "Eh, a little snow never hurt a Minnesotan." She set the bar for me on winter and snow.
I handed the shovel to my coworker who arrived shortly after that SUV woman left and started to leave. The manager arrived and asked if I could stay because the buses weren't running, but I had another commitment. My coworker offered me a ride to the bus and I said, "Nah, a little snow never hurt a Minnesotan."
I walked up to Snelling, just a few blocks and decided not to wait for the Snelling Ave bus to take me to Marshall, so I walked. That bus never came. When I got to Marshall, I decided not to wait for the 21 and walked toward Minneapolis. Mind you, this was in over 24" of snow, windchill in the negative teens, and I'm all in cotton except for an unlined one-button wool jacket.
Sitting in front of a fire tonight, I can't recall how cold I was when the bus finally did come, about 2.6 miles later. My hands were white and everyone around me looked fine but I was shivering. Not thinking I would make it all the way back to my Harriet Ave apartment, I got off on First Ave and Lake and rang the bell of a friend Elliott BatTzedek.
She stripped me down naked and put me in a warm bath. Probably saved my life, if not a digit or two. My clothes lay on the radiators in that warm south Minneapolis apartment. I don't know how I got home that day. But I still remember my landlord, an Iron Range guy, shoveling and snow blowing a fourth or fifth time said, "Dis ain't nothin'. Ah, a little snow never hurt a Minnesotan."
Three weeks later we got another 18 inches. The snow stuck around all winter. To this day, there hasn't been a winter storm that has phased me.
