Eric G. Wiley

Went to Columbus last weekend to visit my Mom. Since Mom's coffee was purchased pre-ground back in 1994 and has been sitting in her pantry ever since, I went to Starbucks early Sunday morning. After purchasing my paper silo full of toasty black goodness I sat in the parking lot and listened to one of my favorite radio stations, CD 101. The morning sun was beautiful. It was 7am and I had Old Town Worthington all to myself.

The DJ finished up her set and gave the run down of each band we had just heard. One of the bands, she said, was from "...sunny and warm Los Angeles, California." Since I was already enjoying the sun all around me and the DJ was kind enough to throw in some extra adjectives, it didn't take my imagination much effort to conjure up a pretty picture of So. Cal. My tranquility was shattered when she reflexively capped off her sentence with the mewling phrase, "Must be nice." I cringed.

When the fathers of our country came to this region to draw up the boundaries of our state in the winter of 1803, they wore multiple of layers of wool. When packing their bags in Virginia prior to the journey, there is no documentation of them twittering about, asking one another questions like, "Are you taking your flip flops?" They were intelligent men and wisely forwent the flip flops in favor of an extra pair of muskrat socks.

The local Indians they saw when they came to Ohio were wearing lots and lots of fur. The journals of our forefathers noted that the Indians, despite having only a crude system of communication consisting of grunts and ululations, were not taken by surprise when it snowed. The sight of their own breath did not frighten them or cause panic. They were a brave race of indigenous people.

My own family passed word down from one generation to the next: "It gets cold here in the winter." My wife's family did the same. Thanks to a strong tradition of trans-generational education, we now own boots, gloves, knit caps and warm sweaters. We hope to pass these teachings on to our son when he gets old enough.

Because we are prepared, we do not envy people who live in warm places. We, ourselves, are warm and are therefore never compelled to shout out, "Must be nice!", every time we hear the name of a geographic location where it is known to be warm.