A Winter's Day

Mischalina's comments, which appear immediately below this entry and are so beautifully written, remind me of how I loved, and miss, winter days in Chicago.

I was not a Chicagoan or Midwesterner who moved to Southern California because of the warm and sunny weather out here. In fact, we haven't had a warm or sunny day in L.A. for several weeks now. What we have had are dreary, cold, and often rainy days.

"Hates California, it's cold and it's damp!" still rings true. Homes and apartments and offices and classrooms in Southern California are not insulated very well. That means cold temps seep through the walls and the heat just as easily escapes.

My apartment building, built in the late 1940s, is better constructed than most, but it needs better insulation. There is no chance my landlord will ever fix this annoying problem. He knows this building is better than most.

In Chicago, I lived in an apartment building constructed just before World War One. It had solid brick walls and insulation, plastered walls, not wallboard, and radiator heat throughout. There were rectangular-shaped "tubs" that ran the length and width of each radiator. We kept these tubs filled with water, making them humidifiers. The radiator covers were lightweight and easy to lift to add water.

There were a few times, and fortunately not many, when the solid construction and radiator heat weren't quite enough. I remember days and nights when the temperature dropped to about 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, with a wind-chill factor of 60 or 70 degrees below zero. That was COLD!

The radiators always worked beautifully. My three cats loved to sit atop them to stay warm and look out the windows. In warmer months, they would get excited when birds flew by.

One day that stands out was when we experienced "The Blizzard of '79." It happened in late January. I worked at the nearby University of Chicago and lived across the street from the lab school, which was surrounded by a five-foot tall wrought-iron fence. When I awoke that morning and looked out the window, I saw deep snow everywhere. It was sunny and clear but very cold outside. As I left my apartment building, I saw the doorman and janitor had already shoveled the sidewalk in front and even made a snow incline allowing us to get up to and walk atop the snow, which was as deep as the five-foot fence across the street. I made my way slowly to my building on campus, four short blocks away. Not many showed up for work or classes that day. The radio and TV stations told everyone to stay home.

I loved every minute of it! Most Chicagoans hated it.

A major problem was that city snow removal vehicles couldn't get through the deep, deep snow to clear the side streets all over the city. No one could go anywhere. Mayor Michael Bilandic, who was up for relection in April, really botched up the job of clearing city streets. The media was all over him for it. His major political opponent, Jane Byrne, had a field day complaining about Bilandic's inept administration. She defeated him in the primary and won the general election, becoming Chicago's first female mayor. The Blizzard of '79 was a major reason she won.

I thought about that January as I waited for my bus in the light rain this morning on my way to school. Even a light rain causes major traffic problems in L.A. because Californians just aren't used to driving in it. "Slip, slidin' away!"

No one knows when these weeks of cold, damp weather will end. Until it does, I can sing "That's why the lady is a tramp" to my heart's content.