The Cold

After a couple of months in Winnipeg we moved from the studio apartment near the airport to a one bedroom place on Machray Ave near St. John's Park (a couple of miles NNW of downtown). It was in an older home that had been converted to 4 living units and the main thing I remember is how dusty the furniture was. It had come from a vacant house the landlord owned up on Lake Winnipeg... Despite being allergic to dust I occasionally dealt with my frustrations by punching the sofa cushions until I was exhausted :-)

Then it started getting cold... In Winnipeg the average high temperature stays below freezing from mid-November through mid-March. Which explains why the kitchen sinks are never on an outside wall and the bathroom is usually in the center of the house :-)

It doesn't snow that much in Winnipeg - typically less than 10 feet a year - but it accumulates until spring... Here's a picture taken out the front window of the Machray apartment after the first major snow:


For "Google street view" aficionados: Search for "114 Machray Avenue, Winnipeg" and put the "street view" guy there. The apartment is in the brick house with two front doors and a weird semi-circle over them. The above picture was taken from the 2nd floor window on the right...

In light of the cold weather the move to Machray was a tactical error: The schools my sister and I attended were on the opposite end of town. It wasn't that far - maybe 7 miles - but you had to change buses twice and the transfers weren't particularly well timed... Plus, our apartment was 2 blocks from the bus stop and 3 blocks from the corner grocery store.

And there was another unanticipated expense - coats and gloves suitable for that climate don't come cheap... Strangely enough, if you were a teenage boy nothing would get you teased more mercilessly than wearing a hat. I really didn't like being teased so I wore ear muffs. Those were acceptable - otherwise your ears would freeze off....

I learned some interesting things about the cold while waiting for the bus:
The oil in you hair and eyebrows freezes...
Breathing gives you a "frost mustache"...
You know how sometimes when you turn on a space heater the expanding metal makes a "tick, tick, tick" noise? Your skull does the same thing when you come in from extreme cold. It sounds quite loud inside your head and it feels really sick :-)
If your hands get so cold you can't move your fingers do not forcibly bend them. The skin on the knuckles will split open and when they warm up they will bleed and really hurt. (They should hand out leaflets to new residents explaining that...)

And then there's the breathing problem... Inhaling through the nose protects the lungs but it gives you brain freeze. And "open mouth" breathing feels like someone is shoving a knife down your throat. Barely parting your lips helps - but then your lips freeze... So - yeah - breathing is a problem :-)
I actually tried smoking those first couple of months - using a cigarette to preheat the air - but that aggravated my asthma... So I just breathed really slowly and held it a lot. Yes - all that breath holding during grade school actually came in handy :-)

And weirdest of all was the "ice cold drink" phenomenon...
Now - suppose you take a cold soft drink outside and the temperature is -30°F. The drink will be roughly 64°F warmer than than the outside air. So compared to the air you're breathing the drink feels hot in your mouth - but as it goes down your throat the sensation changes from hot to cold. It's really strange... BTW - you have to drink the soda fast or it will freeze...

And - bless the young ladies of Winnipeg! No matter how cold it got they still wore those ultra-short skirts. Even with the customary "industrial weight" pantyhose they must have been freezing their unmentionables off... They had my utmost respect, admiration and gratitude :-)