Medallion hunters

 By Forrest Adams

The question was "Are you crazy?" I asked it to Dan Hansen yesterday after I had taken his photograph with the coveted 2008 Friends of the Library 2008 February Fest medallion.

It was all I could think to ask after he told me how he and his father, Charlie, had searched Herman Field Park for 45 minutes Tuesday morning before they found the medallion; 45 minutes in a sub-zero temperature with a wind chill. And this to find a trinket and win some prizes. My cat didn't even want to go outside yesterday morning. It was too cold for her. To each their own. The Hansen team won last year, and I understand the weather was cold then, too. Maybe they function better in the cold weather.

Dan Hansen: Medallion winner

Not me. I like the warm. Jim Bishop, the late American journalist and writer, once said "Winter is fury- and white silence. It can freeze a blade of grass with a glance."

Dan assured me that quite the contrary he and his father are not crazy. In fact, they are sane, he said, because they were hunting for, and finding, the medallion before the temperatures really plunged. "Better to do this before it's 20 degrees below," he said.  

Enough said, we left it at that. The furious part of winter picked up, the wind and air enveloped us in a perpetual chill, and we both retreated to our respective vehicle.

As I sat in my car in the garage this morning and listened to the slow turnover of the engine, I thought: 'Now this is cold. It's a good thing nobody is out searching for the medallion.'

Congratulations to the Hansens, and may their sub-zero temperatures for the medallion hunt always be single digits, not double.

Jim Bishop, American journalist and writer, once said "Winter is fury- and white silence. It can freeze a blade of grass with a glance." When we were talking, that furious part of winter picked up. It chilled us to our core.

Dan assured me quite the contrary, he and his father were not crazy. In fact, they were sane he said because they were hunting for, and finding, the medallion before the temperatures really plunged. "Better to do this before it's 20 degrees below," he said.  

Enough said, we left it at that. A sudden chill in the air cut the interview short, and we retreated to our respective vehicles.

As I sat in my car in the garage this morning and listened to the slow turnover of the engine, I thought: 'Now this is cold. It's a good thing nobody is out searching for the medallion.'

Medallion

Congratulations to the Hansens, and may their sub-zero temperatures for the medallion hunt always be single digits, not double.