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A few minutes in Ice Land is enough freezing weather

By John Toth

The Bulletin


I have mentioned before that cold weather and I don’t get along too well. But I make an exception once a year for the sake of the family and the holidays.


We all go to Ice Land at Moody Gardens in Galveston, although had I known that we’d be getting Ice Land naturally a few days later, I may have skipped it this time.


The Bulletin teams up with Moody Gardens several times a year to provide our readers with an opportunity to enjoy the holiday venues there for free. Since we started our partnership, Ice Land had become a Toth outing, usually with family and friends.


I sort of look forward to it. I like the displays and the slide made of ice, but I have a problem with the cold. They keep the temperature inside at 9 degrees Fahrenheit (32F is freezing).


That presents a problem for me, but I try not to show it. We all wear Ice Land-issued parkas, but I also wear three layers of warm clothing underneath it. I know how to play this cold weather game after all these years.


But gloves are a problem, because I want to take pictures and videos. I have to use my bare hands to operate the phone or camera.


I don’t say anything, because kids are running around me in open parkas, like it was summer. If they can take it, I sure am not going to give off any signs that I am freezing my hands off.


The slide is a must. This time, it was nice and slick. Sometimes, the parkas stick to it, and I’m not really sliding, more like scooting down with the aid of my feet and hands.


I’d venture to say that I was the oldest one standing in line on the ice steps leading to the top of the slide. Nobody around me appeared cold. I wasn’t, either, or at least that’s what I was hoping to project. At the top of the slide, a young Moody Gardens employee let us in the slide entrance three at a time. There were three slides.


“How long is your shift in here?” I asked him.


“One hour,” he replied.


“Do you get cold?” I asked.


“I’m cold right now. My shift is almost over.”


“That’s not too bad,” I replied.


“What’s bad is when my replacement is late or doesn’t show up,” he replied.


“What do you do then?” I asked.


“I stay cold for longer,” he said.


I admired him. This must be the coldest job in the whole county, maybe the entire Texas coastline. I hope he and others who work inside the big tent freezer get paid well for their labor.


The young man probably went outside on January mornings when the temperature was around 30F and said, “nice weather.”


January is my least favorite month of the year, with February being a close second. That’s when it gets the coldest along the Texas Gulf Coast.


But it’s only for a few days at a time. I like to escape it by cruising to the Caribbean, but that’s not happening this year.


I spent my first winter in Texas in Bay City in 1979. My mother came out to visit me for Christmas. It was in the upper 70s and sunny each day. She loved it. I loved it.


We had a great time. I took her out to the mouth of the Colorado River, and we walked along the shore, where the river empties into the Gulf. Then we went to a local restaurant for seafood.


That was a great Christmas. My mother flew back to the big city where it was winter and bragged to all her friends about how warm it was on Christmas.


“How warm is it now?” she asked when we talked on New Year’s day.


“I have the heater on. I think it’s around freezing.” I replied.


She was smart. She never came to visit in January or February.

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