"The Morning Call Inc., Copyright 2002"
Date: THURSDAY, January 7, 1988
WORKING OUTDOORS IS NO FUN
DEDICATION, LONG JOHNS AID IN SURVIVING COLD THE BIG CHILL
by LEONEL SANCHEZ, The Morning Call
It was a sunny day yesterday in the Lehigh Valley, but that is where the illusion ended.
The sun didn't fool anybody during yesterday's cold spell, especially those who have to face reality in their daily jobs.
Try asking a policeman, a mail carrier or anyone else working outside yesterday how they cope with the cold weather and most would have responded in the same way.
''You don't cope with it. You put up with it,'' said Charles Kresge, owner of the Texaco gas station in MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township.
Lehigh Valley residents will have to put up with more of the same the rest of the week as temperatures are expected to stay cold in the daytime and get colder at night.
Today's forecast is sunny in the morning with increasing cloudiness late in the day and a high of 15 and a low of 10 with light winds, according to Charles Giannetta, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport.
Temperatures were expected to go down to 0 to 5 degrees last night after reaching a high of 18 at mid-afternoon, Giannetta said.
Tomorrow will be sunny again with highs in the mid-20s, lows in the upper teens with a chance of snow, he said.
The low yesterday did not break any record as the weather failed to dip to the minus 4 recorded in 1968.
Like it or not, certain people must venture outside as part of their livelihood.
A common thread runs through the fiber of those who must endure icy conditions to work and earn a living. And it is more than the insulated underwear that they wear. It is grit. Allentown policemen Anthony P. Longo and Lou Maiorano encounter less crime than usual in their foot patrol along Hamilton Street Mall but the weather reminds them there is a price for everything.
''There is less people on the streets,'' Longo said to justify what would ordinarily be an easy day without the severe cold. On days like yesterday their presence is enough to ''make people feel safe,'' Maiorano said.
Longo said his colleagues at the police station tease him about volunteering for overtime on a day like yesterday. But the extra money pays the bills, he said. ''And anyway, after two or three hours outside you get numb anyway.''
The only luxury they enjoy on days like yesterday, he said, comes when they check into the professional buildings and stores along Hamilton Mall, a requirement in their patrol of the city's financial district.
For Frank DeAngelis, duty makes him do it also. Neither frigid weather nor the snow forecast for tomorrow keeps the 38-year-old Bethlehem man from delivering mail and repeating in his own words themailman's motto. ''Rain or snow you got to deliver the mail,'' he said.
The shiver-inducing weather makes his job difficult, he said, because as his hands become numb he can become clumsy with the mail.
But nothing can be done about that, he said. ''People would complain if they didn't get their mail.'' DeAngelis was substituting yesterday for the regular mail carrier along the Hamilton Street route.
Few complaints came from Kresge who bundled himself with clothes before trotting outside the office in his gas station to assist motorists who on most days would opt for self-serve.
''For the few cents it costs them, it makes more sense for them to let people like me clean their windows,'' Kresge, 60, of Bethlehem said.
Very few people can repair telephone lines however and that makes service technician Karl Heydt, 23, of Whitehall Township, a busy person around this time of the year.
Heydt, armed with his helmet, tools and long johns underneath thick clothing, spent one hour yesterday replacing a telephone line for a home near the Highland Memorial Park in Whitehall Township. He will spend a good portion of his day climbing 18- to 24-foot ladders to install the telephone lines, he said.
The weather is no different from above either, he said. ''It's cold.''
''The wind is tough to fight and it takes time to get used to,'' he said. Or as others put it, sometimes you never do.
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"WEATHER BY GIANNETTA"