... and we begin to see the disadvantages of growing up in south Texas.
I've never been that good with heat. I'm not even sure how to know when it's just painful and when it's hot enough to cause a burn that would scab over. I used to play with ice with a guy though: he got far more than his fair share of ice cubes held on his penis, and I've had more than my share down my chest.
But then, I'm from central Canada.
Notice that I did not mention my penis? At least not yet. That would be a whole different set of conversations, including a few where i admit to the pleasure of pain, the absence of time, the fear of nothing, and even the warmth of ice ... another time, perhaps.
Canada? OMFG, whaling, seal clubbing, tundra tromping igloo people ... Oh wait. Central Canada? ... people who trap for furs all year long and jerk caribou meat to make it through the arctic winter in their igloos. Hmm!
Don't let my south Texas stigma fowl the smart, thinking parts of your brain. I have had plenty of friends who love the winter places and deliberately seek them out. I have one acquaintance, who grew up in the same environment as I, who has become quite wealthy and tries to go skiing every weekend. I don't think he has ever succeeded, but that is one of his goals. He is not typical, either, though. Not all subtropicals live only for the warmth.
Disadvantages to growing up in south Texas? ... they are numerous, but I seldom want to talk about the more pervasive disadvantages.
There are odd things I have known that have given me a rather strange personal character, but I rarely talk about shit like ... why the sixties and seventies S.W.A.T. teams, just being developed nationwide, consulted with the Border Patrol in south Texas and New Mexico to learn how to be prepared for the worst or that the grandfather of a duly elected mayor of the town I grew up near, a district judge that grandfather was, shot and killed four people and took all the judicial records from the courthouse in 1935 so he could move the county seat to a location farther away from the border or why that duly elected mayor took it upon himself to shoot into a crowd of protesters at his farm one night when his "wetbacks" demanded more money. It wasn't all bikinis, banana trees and date palms down there thirty years ago (even worse, fifty years ago). It was mostly fucked up and the worst of them have gotten away with it for the most part.
Not being able to appreciate cold, like so many others can, is just something inside me.