Frozen Grande Prairie

One time, back in the days when I was a travelling door to door encyclopedia salesman, we went to Grande Prairie, Alberta.  It was cold.

Grande Prairie, at around 40 thousand people, was one of the biggest cities we worked in my 6 months of purgatory.  We stayed there for a whole week in February of 1994, and I'll probably have a few tales to tell in future posts from just that week alone.

But mostly, it was cold.

Indeed, it's the coldest I've ever been.  One morning it got down to -47 Celsius (-53 Fahrenheit), but the first few nights we worked it was merely -45 (-49F) until it started warming up.  Folks, until you're outside knocking on strangers' doors in -45 degrees, you don't know what a tough day at work is.  I remember how different the physical world is at those temperatures.  When I would breathe in, the inside of my nose would instantly freeze, and when I exhaled, it would instantly thaw.  Ten times a minute.  And my coat sounded different.  In minus 45, it sounded like it was made from crinkly cellophane as I swung my arms while walking.

Unfortunately, I was less that ideally prepared for such weather.  I did have a really great warm parka with a hood, and decent gloves, so above the waist I was OK.  However, I didn't have long johns under my jeans and, worst of all, I had cheap non-winter hiking boots on my feet.  This was not good.

After about 15 minutes outside, I couldn't feel my toes any more.  After a few more minutes, I couldn't feel my heels either.  At that point, I would always say to the people behind the next door I knocked on, "Hi!  I'm an encyclopedia salesman.  I promise I won't try to sell you anything if you let me in to warm up."  And would you believe it, they always did!  I never once got turned down, and would usually be offered hot cocoa to boot.

But the best was one time, as I was just getting warm and toasty, the man of the house said to me, "Well, as long as you're here, why don't you try your pitch on us?"  I was always serious about not trying to sell to folks letting me in to warm up, but I wasn't going to insult this kind gentleman by refusing him.

It was one of the most satisfying sales I ever made.