The Polar Vortex Hits The Bakken -- Last Night -- January 28, 2019

From The Williston Herald:

The North Dakota Department of Transportation and North Dakota Highway Patrol issued a No Travel Advisory at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, that includes Williston.

From the NDDOT:

The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) along with the North Dakota Highway Patrol (NDHP) have extended the No Travel Advisory to northern North Dakota due to freezing rain, snow accumulations, and blowing snow causing hazardous travel conditions, slippery roads, and reduced visibility. Cities included in the No Travel Advisory are Williston, Minot, Devils Lake, Grand Forks, and surrounding areas. A No Travel Advisory means conditions are such that motorists should not travel in these areas.

Weather this morning, Tuesday, January 28, 2019:

• 18 degrees with a wind child of minus five degrees
• looks like it will a high of minus six degrees tomorrow during the day with a wind chill of minus 22 degrees
• Tuesday night it will hit a low of minus17degrees, with apparently no wind because the wind chill will also be minus 17 degrees
• by Friday, it will be above freezing, hitting a high of 37 degrees, or short-sleeve weather for the roughnecks

In the winter of 1965 - 1966 I would have been fourteen years old, a freshman in high school, or a ninth grader at Junior High School. I honestly forget if I was the high school or the junior high school in ninth grade but I think it would have been junior high school. I remember very, very clearly my eighth grade year at Junior High School, with Mr Thue. And I remember sitting in study hall right after the bell rang after lunch on November 22, 1963. I was sitting in study hall in the far, far right row, in the third seat back, or thereabouts. The editor of the junior high newspaper would have been a few seats to my left and behind me.

I do not recall January 29, 1966, being any colder than any other winter in North Dakota. If I was at the middle school (Junior High School), I would have been given a ride to school. If I was at the high school, I would have walked the six blocks.

I do remember walking  home from high school many nights after wrestling during the winters of 1966-1967 and 1967 - 1968. It would be well after dark, perhaps around 7:30 p.m. or so, and it could be twenty or thirty degrees below zero, absolutely calm, and an incredibly clear sky. The little bit of snow on the ground on the path I would walk was very, very crisp. I can still hear the crunchiness. I would get lost in my thoughts walking home, sometimes walking even more slowly to enjoy the freedom of being alone. I occasionally saw the aurora borealis.

I remember a particularly incredible aurora borealis show one of those nights. I was walking up 11th Street West and 6th Avenue West where I would have turned right to head home. I have no idea where I had been -- that was a roundabout way from the high school to get home. Whatever. All I remember is how beautiful the evening was, probably ten degrees below zero, no wind, and so incredibly calm. And no traffic. Had there been traffic, it is likely someone would have stopped and asked if I needed a ride. And the crunchiness of the snow.

There was no hurry to get home. I did not eat dinner/supper during wrestling seasons. I generally had a can of Tab and by the end of the week I was "sucking" on lemons to curb my thirst. I had to get down to my wrestling weight of 95 pounds for the weigh-in for the Friday night wrestling match or the Saturday wrestling tournament. My natural weight was 115 pounds and that was a very, very skinny 115 pounds. By February, we were allowed an extra three pounds, or 98 pounds for the 95-pound weight class.

After the wrestling match or the tournament, I would get home late at night, after everyone in the family was already in bed. My mother would always have a steak dinner warming on the stove for me when I arrived home on that Friday or Saturday night. It was the only night of the week I had a real dinner. We did not have much money in those days, but somehow my mom found the money to get me a steak.

All of that for this: