I had a feeling that this year would be an old-school winter, not like we've had for the past few years. The winters in my memory were always a couple of weeks of single-digit temps in January and another one or two in February. And lots of lake-effect. That's pretty much what we've had so far this year, although maybe a little less snow than was typical back then.
There were a few winters in the 70s where I remember freezing most of the time. Then again, I was pumping gas after school, and too cool to really dress properly.
As I recall, the winter of '66 was really cold here. I'm told '59 was really cold too, but I was only 2 then, so I don't remember it. My father still complains it was so cold they had to borrow money to pay for an extra coal delivery.
If I knew it would shut him up about it, I'd have a truckload of the stuff delivered to him now. Of course, with a gas furnace, it wouldn't do a lot of good.