When I travel, people ask me all the time: “How can you live in Wisconsin? Aren’t the winters brutal?”
I usually shrug and answer: “Yes. But we have the Green Bay Packers.”
Truth be told, winter IS really rough around here. I’ve lived in other states, and yes, other states get snow and yes, other states get cold temps. But Wisconsin is not for sissies. We’ve had snow as early as the first week of October. And sometimes freezing temps stretch into May. (That’s more than half the year, in case you were counting along.)
In my college statistics class, the professor told us that less than 1 percent of the world lives in a climate where it gets as cold as it does in Wisconsin — and boy do I believe it. Two years ago, during the record-breaking “polar vortex” winter, neighbors of ours said their fair-weather friends got so sick of the icy temps that they decided to move to a milder climate. My husband (who hates being cold) was sorely tempted to join them.
So besides having all our friends and family here … why do we live in Wisconsin?
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant”
~Anne Bradstreet~
It’s the classic yin and yang. Without darkness, there could be no light. Without turmoil, we could not experience peace. Without sickness, we could not appreciate good health. And yes, without winter, we could not experience spring.
Wisconsinites this time of year are like wild animals coming out of hibernation. We get excited about washing windows and hanging laundry out to dry on the line. So anxious are we to rid ourselves of the gray slush of winter that we wait in long lines at automatic car washes. We flock to beauty salons for fresh, bright highlights in our hair.
Going outside without a jacket and gloves feels like a mini-vacation. And while we’re not quite ready to to open the windows or let the kids bike to school again, those days are coming. And that’s why we live in Wisconsin — because surviving another winter makes all the pleasures of spring well worth the wait.
LB