Madness Monday: Football in the cold

I am not talking about ancestors here. Well, maybe someday my descendants will think I was mad. My inspiration for this is the recent collapse of the Metrodome here in Minnesota and the subsequent need for the Minnesota Vikings to play tonight's football game in the cold at the new stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Last weekend's 15-18 inch snows, coupled with an inflated dome roof (now deflated) already beyond its supposed life span, is the reason that the Minnesota Vikings will play the Chicago Bears outdoors. People have
been working around the clock to get the Minnesota Gopher's stadium cleared of feet of snow to be ready for the Vikings first home outdoor game in 29 years.On top of all that, it is snowing right now and the forecast is for another 5-9 inches of snow.

My mad memory is that back in 1976 I attended a nighttime Vikings game in the cold. In Minnesota. In winter. In the snow. In the open air Metropolitan Stadium. I believe it was December of that year but the old calendars are packed away on a tall shelf right now. I know the year because I was pregnant with our third child, Patrick, and he was born the next March 4th. So I was six months pregnant. It was a business "must do" event as we were being treated by a salesman from whom my husband, Jim, purchased items for the business where he worked.

Other than freezing my butt off, I remember the dinner that proceeded the game. We went to a French restaurant and the salesman ordered raw oysters for everyone. Oh, the queasiness began for me. I did not eat them but watched the guys slurping them down. Watching wasn't good either.

I drank hot chocolate during that game and never really felt warm. It was the next year, 1977, when I began my interest in family history. Was it prompted by my ancestors who really knew what it was like to be cold?

I will be watching the Vikings and Bears tonight on TV, in my robe, with the quilt, and drinking hot chocolate. At home.