I wonder

As they used to say on mornings like this, "It's colder outside than a well digger's "posterior region!" Right now it's 12*F in our backyard, 7* in St. Louis, 10* at the cabin, 9* in Rolla down by the creek where the old cabin stood in the early 70's and 3* on Dustin and Val's front porch in California, Mo. Dang, that's cold!
I wonder what Grandma Keil would have done first thing on a morning like this in 1955, waking up to discover a heavy layer of frost on the grass in her backyard as she peered out her back window. I wonder if she headed straight into the kitchen through the bedroom door that passed beneath the stairs leading to the attic as she pulled her robe tighter to fend of the chill in the early morning air or would she first walk out to the front porch to get the newspaper before going back inside and brewing up a piping hot pot of coffee for Paw Paw and herself. I wonder if as a matter of early morning routine Grandma fried up a cast iron bacon and egg breakfast on her old white gas stove while Paw Paw sat at the kitchen table reading the paper and catching up on the latest happenings in Moniteau County, before heading off to work in his old panel truck. I wonder what thoughts they each had when they read the first article of the new year about plans for the upcoming California Fair, which has taken place each summer for the past 150 years or so at the fair grounds just a hop skip and a jump down the street from their old house. I wonder if like most of us small town folks the first thing they talked about in the morning while eating breakfast and sipping their coffee, was the weather. I wonder....