How cold was it?

I suppose I can now put on the badge as an official old coot. To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, you know your an old coot when the words "back in the day" start everyone of your stories. But, in addition to that the stories have to some how point out how much things have changed. The snow piles were higher. The temperatures were more extreme. The teachers were stricter. The cars were better. The women were prettier. You get the idea.

I personally do think that winters were colder when I was a kid and I also think if you compared the records you would find out I am correct, but this is a a blog not a newspaper article, so I'm not going to make the effort this morning.

I do remember one winter. It was going to the University of Minnesota, married to my first wife and working full time. That is not bragging. I was stupid to tackle all of that and as a result I didn't do any of them right.
But stupid as it might have been, it was my life. We had an extended cold spell in Minnesota. As I remember it the temperature did not go above 32 for about a month. I had a little Italian car that held two people. The battery was the size of riding lawn mower battery. When the cold moved in I couldn't get the car to start because the battery wasn't strong enough for the cold weather. I would get on my heavy winter clothing, go out to the car, take the battery out of the car and bring it in so it would hold full charge until morning.

Cars in general were not easy to start in those days. People had all kinds of devices to make their cars easier to start. We installed engine block heaters to keep the engine warm over night. Some people would place a light bulb on an extension cord near their battery to keep int warm. Others would throw a rug over the engine the night before when the engine was still warm in an attempt to keep it that way.

Non-the less on extremely cold winter days, tow trucks from every gas station in town would be out helping people get their cars started either by using battery jumper cables or push starting them. (Quite frankly I don't know if you can push start the cars we drive today.)

Push starting involved getting the car into the road, shifting into first or second gear and depressing the clutch. When the tow truck either pulled you or pushed you up to speed you would pop the clutch and usually the car would start.

Of course you would be bundled up to your eyeteeth with winter outer wear. The car would take forever to heat up and when it did all of the snow you tracked into the car would melt and the cabin smelled like wet wool all the way to school or work.

When the cold wave first moved in, I would garb up to get my battery out of the car the night before and to re-install it the next morning. That year demonstrates how we and our cars could acclimate to the weather, because when the extreme cold spell started to break about a month later I was running out to the car in my pajamas with a sweater pulled on and bare headed. The car started easier and sometimes I didn't even have to take the battery in.

Cars with their computerized systems are so much better these days. I haven't seen any body getting a push start in years and the only ones getting battery jump starts are people that probably should get new batteries.
Is it warmer these days compared to when I was younger. I think it is and I might even get up the energy to look it up.