That Was Cold

This is part 3 of the stories about my Mother teaching at Speedwell in 1942/43. I remember her telling about the temperature being -60 F. My Mother said that she had to be at the school early to make a fire to try to warm up the school. I assume they had a small wood stove in the school. Those that came to school when it was that cold stayed close to the stove to try to get some warmth from it. But I am sure that in a log and plaster school with the outside temperature -60 F, it would still be mighty cold in there.

I looked in the records of Environment Canada and saw the coldest temperature that winter in northwest Saskatchewan was January 20, 1943 ranging from -50 C to -53 C. A temperature of -60 F would be equivalent to -51 C. The school register shows that 6 of the 31 students came to school on January 20. Many of the younger students were away for several days around that time with the reason shown as "C" which I assume was for "cold".

In the picture above the small building to the right of the school was the teacherage. My Mother would not stay there, so a family at a nearby farm let her stay with them. She would have walked to the school from there.

The school also had an outhouse (not shown in picture) which would have been a very cold experience at -60 F. Another story my Mother told about going out from the school to the outhouse one winter day and the students were lined up with snowballs ready to throw. She just walked straight along with a smile and thought "They wouldn't dare throw a snowball at me." As she went past a boy hit her in the back of the head with a snowball. Then all the others turned their snowballs at him. She said "We all had a good laugh."

While I am telling "cold" stories, my Mother used to tell a story from her own childhood about going to school in the cold. On a very cold winter day her Father picked them up from school with a horse and wagon to take them home to the farm. But her Father had been in town to get coal, so the children were riding on top of a full wagon load of frozen coal. My Mother remembered they were so cold that their Father took off his coat and put it over them. Then he ran along beside the horse to keep from freezing on the way home. In later years when my Mother was riding with us in our van if she said it was cold I would reminder her "It is a lot warmer than riding on a load of frozen coal."