In the checkout line at Busch’s with my husband, recently, I realized that I had, as usual, left our grocery tote bags in the trunk of the car. I dashed for the parking lot to get them, holding my arms to my chest as I hustled, as the store was cold enough that I was shivering. Colder than the perfect fall day outside, for which I had dressed. I made eye contact with the man staffing the help desk as I sped by, and he said, “It’s that season.”
Now, Daughter Number Three, who lives in the South, runs into indoor-outdoor temperature differentials year-round. When we visit her and have occasion to enter an indoor public space with her, we bring at least heavy sweaters, to wear indoors. She doesn’t.
“It’s how you know you’re a southerner,” this former northerner explained to us once. “When you don’t need to put on a sweater when you go inside. When your body just adjusts.” We congratulated her on her southern-ness. And continued to don or doff our sweaters, depending on whether we were headed into or out of interior spaces.
“It’s also how southerners can tell non-southerners,” she told us in March. Daughter Number One, who lives in Wyoming, was visiting when we were. Sure enough, when the three of us entered the next store and D#1 and I grabbed our arms, the short-sleeve-wearing owner smiled at us northerners and said, “Y’all aren’t from here, are you? Are you visiting her?” She indicated acclimated southerner D#3.
“Yes,” D#1 and I answered through teeth we were gritting to keep them from chattering in the arctic air.
“How could you tell?” I asked, just to test D#3’s theory.
“Lucky guess,” she said, and kindly refrained from adding, “Bless your heart.” She was very pleasant, and we made a number of purchases. I bought a coat.
My shift at the Thrift Shop this afternoon brought that conversation to mind. We’ve had a pronounced cold snap lately, after a long stretch of balmy-to-outright-hot weather. Even during the warm weather, my volunteer colleagues and I had been trying to get the powers that be to decrease how much the place was air conditioned.
What we learned was that only one person could warm us up, via her cell phone. We would have to call her and make our plea. We did. She acceded to our request. And the next day, the air conditioning was back at full force. It seems the shop is cooled according to a program and, although the program can be interrupted on any given day, the program resumes as usual the next day.
Now, as mentioned, we’re having a cold snap. And the air conditioning program continues. Those of us who work the front desk have learned, though. We bring something warm to wear over our normal attire. Before entering the shop today, I debated whether or not to leave my gloves in the car. At length, I decided not to reveal my cold-wimpiness to everyone in the shop by wearing gloves into the store, and left them in the car.
I greeted the volunteer working the door when I arrived. She looked cold. And what she said was, “I wish I’d brought my gloves in with me. I’d be wearing them now.”
The shop’s customers get cold, too. “Is it cold in here, or is it me?” one inquired.
“It’s cold!” three of us replied in unison. The day’s most popular question was, “When does the coat sale start?”
The answer is Monday, which didn’t help anyone today. On the other hand, we did sell a lot of hats. One young lady bought four. I suggested she could wear them all at once, and she paused to give the idea serious thought.
“I think that would look weird,” she decided, at length, but she seemed to regret arriving at that conclusion.
This week, outdoor temperatures have been starting in the high thirties and low forties. I grabbed the fall coat that had gloves in the pockets on Monday morning, when the dog and I left the house for our walk. I wore those gloves, too. Tuesday morning was a tad warmer, and I grabbed a different coat, with no gloves in the pockets. Yikes! The dog, in his extravagant fur coat, chose that day to sniff just about every tree we passed. Thoroughly. The wind was blowing, and I never got warm.
Autumn’s far enough along, now, that we’ve reached early coat weather. It’s hard to calibrate the heating and cooling, mechanical or otherwise. It’s a good thing fall in Michigan is gorgeous.
13 October 2023