Tag Archives: winter

My Minnesota fashion statement

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I’ve never really been one to follow the fashion trends.

I prefer turtlenecks to those colorful silky scarves in winter, I’d rather wear jeans to work every day than have to dress up for the job and, if I knew I wouldn’t be razzed terribly at the office, I wouldn’t mind buying a pair of leg warmers again.

Yes, those knitted leg warmers were trendy when I was in about the fifth grade, but they’re making a comeback – and they really did keep my legs warm!

Knowing that I’ll be spending much of the afternoon outside on Saturday covering Winterfest activities and the Deep Freeze Dip in Worthington, I’ve been gathering up the warmest of my winter attire, and I can tell you right now, I won’t be making any fashion statements down by the lakeshore.

Right now, my plan is to wear two pairs of my favorite alpaca fiber socks (of different colors of course!) underneath my pair of clodhopper boots. The long underwear will be under the blue jeans and, if I dig out a pair of jeans I fit into a couple of years ago, I have enough extra room to put a third layer (maybe sweat pants) on as well (under the jeans, of course!)

The tops (plural) will be pretty easy – a long-sleeved turtleneck under a sweatshirt, under a sweater, under my winter parka. (It is only supposed to be about 7 degrees, after all!)

I bought new gloves tonight that had better keep my fingers warm. I liked them because they had grippers on the underside – perfect for holding a pencil to take notes. (Did you know pens freeze when the air is that cold? It’s happened to me before!)

Perhaps the most laughable item I will be wearing is my new bomber hat. (It was a birthday present, so no one can make fun of it!) In all honesty, it looks like a bunny rabbit gave up its life for my new hat. Sadly, the fur appears to be nothing more than decoration (although I think it will keep my ears warm). If necessary, I’ll also have a ski-mask along to cover up even more of my face.

Hmm, maybe I should just wear the ski mask anyway – it might serve as a good disguise. If no one recognizes me, I won’t have to endure teasing!

Then again, I’d rather be making a horrible wintertime fashion statement than don a swimsuit and jump in the lake!

If you can come for a little while – or stay for the afternoon – please join me at Chautauqua Park on the shore of Lake Okabena on Saturday afternoon and watch those crazy people take the Deep Freeze Dip. The dip starts at 3 p.m.

I promise I won’t make fun of your Minnesota wintertime fashion statement – if you don’t make fun of mine!

Dashing through the snow

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A pair of the nephews received new sleds during the Buntjer family Christmas on Saturday, which meant an afternoon of face- and finger-freezing while being pulled behind the four-wheeler down on the farm.

I couldn’t help but notice that the people of my generation stayed indoors – undoubtedly too old for such frolic (or afraid we’d be feeling our age come Sunday!)

As nephew Matt tore around the yard with screaming and laughing sled riders in tow, we of the older generation sat around the grazing table talking about sledding in the good ’ol days. (Not that they were any more or any less fun, but we did have sleds with steel runners, big wooden toboggans and round, metal supersonic cylindrical disks.)

What fun it was to trek to the top of the hill in the cattle yard, plant ourselves on the sled and shove off toward the great beyond – or rather, an area where we wouldn’t run head-first into the cattle panels.

When the snow was really slick, we’d head for the driveway and its slow and steady downward slope. The steel runners worked best for this locale, and I always preferred to lay on my stomach and steer with my hands, rather than sit on the sled and steer with my feet.

Generally, this worked to my advantage in sled races against my brothers, but it was not without its flaw. Like maneuvering down any driveway, one must come to a stop before flying across the highway, and it only took one time for me to realize driving my sled off course and into a snowbank was not the best choice.

Snow tends to get in all the little nooks and crannies – like in one’s mouth, between the eye sockets and the eye glasses, between the scarf and the zipper of the snowsuit and between the wrists and the mitten cuffs.

After that first incident I learned to use my toes as brakes, and what could be better than a pair of those big lovely moon boots with the thick rubber platform soles! Mom never had to worry about us wearing a hole through our moon boots – they were the best, warmest, most comfortable boots I’ve ever owned.

The oldest of my nephews said Saturday he always preferred the sledding disk to any of the others. To me, it’s the most dangerous option because you never quite know what path this sled will take. One too many times our supersonic cylindrical disk took me backwards down Pfeil’s Hill – a local sledding mecca that is scarey enough for kids who can see what obstacles are coming before them!

The disk worked great being pulled behind a snowmobile – almost too well, as I remember. Mighty was the kid who could hang on – and stay on – the metal disk being whipped around by a snowmobile doing 360-degree-turns in the alfalfa field.

I was not the mighty kid, I will tell you that. I can also say few sledding incidents are more painful than going airborne with an inner-tube and doing a belly flop (without the inner-tube) on a snow-covered gravel driveway.

I thought of that painful childhood memory as I longingly looked out the window Saturday afternoon and wished I owned a snowsuit and a good pair of moon boots.

Bah Humbug to winter

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I considered Monday to be my first taste of a Minnesota winter this season, having had to drive ice-covered roads and encounter white-out conditions as semis passed our four-wheel-drive truck on the way back to Worthington. Mom was in the passenger seat cringing and Dad was the back seat driver, as is usually the case.

We’d made a quick trip to Sioux Falls, S.D., just as rain began to fall on Worthington Monday morning to see the new arrival — my great-nephew, and my parents’ first great-grandson. No threat of a snowstorm could keep us away.

But when threat became reality outside the hospital room window, I began to panic just a bit — so much that I completely forgot to have my picture taken with little Brody.

I hate driving during our Minnesota winters.

I suppose I could just shorten that to “I hate winter.”

Images of last year’s high snow drifts in my front lawn are still vivid memories, and they certainly aren’t happy ones. To hear forecasters predict this winter will be just like last winter makes me want to pack my bags and tell everyone I’ll be back around April 15.

I was working late on Tuesday night, filling in while we get through the next couple of weeks without two key reporters, when I told our copy editor how much I disliked winter.

In his typical calm tone, Joe said, “Aw, it’s not so bad.”

Yet, when I asked him to name one good thing about winter, he couldn’t give me an answer.

I broke the silence a couple of minutes later with, “I suppose if a guy (hint, hint nephew Andrew) would invite me ice fishing, I’d like that about winter!”

Then, I thought back to long, long ago — there must have been a time in my life when I liked winter.

I suppose if I was 10 years old again, I’d like to hear that school was cancelled. And, being 10, I’d probably go dig the plastic sled out of the old wash house and head to the empty cattle pasture for a fun-filled day.

If I was 15 years old again, I probably wouldn’t mind taking the four-wheeler for a spin through the snow drifts.

And then I remembered back to when I was those ages — how chore time meant breaking ice from 5-gallon water buckets and carrying 5-gallon feed pails through knee-high snow drifts between the feed shed and the barn.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I didn’t like winter even as a kid.

Joe and I did agree on one thing — we should at least have a little snow for a white Christmas, as long as it melts before my January birthday. My last two birthdays have been flanked by blizzards.