When you have youth on your side and a good automobile, you think that you are invincible and can challenge anything coming your way and come out the winner. My brother thought so and in the process discovered how formidable an opponent Old Man Winter can be.
Kenneth was a travelling salesman working for Scott National Foods. His home was in Regina, Saskatchewan but he travelled the length and breadth of that province stocking the shelves of grocers large and small and the larders of restaurants that relied on the products his company provided.
A dependable automobile was important in his line of work. Having worked earlier at a General Motors dealership, he favoured General Motors products, usually a Cadillac. I cannot say for certain if that was the model of car he had at the time of this story. Whatever it was, his transportation let him down.
My brother's character also worked against him. When we were growing up in Edmonton, our mother drummed into us the importance of dressing properly specially during the cold winter months on the Canadian prairies. This sage advice fell on deaf ears where Kenneth was concerned and he absolutely refused to wear gloves and some type of head gear. That type of clothing was for old people not the young and able.
What happened was that Old Man Winter caught him unprepared. He was on a road trip in rural Saskatchewan when a sudden blizzard caught him. It was bitterly cold and with the accompanying wind chill, a person could not remain exposed to the elements for long and survive. His car stalled in the snow and he realised that he would have to hoof it for help. Having only a light topcoat and no gloves or hat, he rifled through his suitcase in desperation.. He pulled out some wool socks to wear on his hands and a terrycloth bathrobe to wrap around his head. He made it to a nearby farmhouse only to find that nobody was home. Now what should he do? He could not return to his car and since the door to the house was unlocked, he considered it an open invitation for him to go inside. In the kitchen he found a fire burning in the cook stove and surmised that the homeowners would soon return unless they were also caught by the storm. He put on a kettle to boil water for tea and sat down to wait for them. Did they get a surprise to find a stranger with a bathrobe wrapped around his head drinking tea in their kitchen. Kenneth had beaten Old Man Winter and that was all that mattered.
