Roger Moroney: Defying the July southerlies

Roger Moroney recalls walking to school in shorts on frosty July mornings. Photo / Warren Buckland

I can beat the cold.

I put on a warmly sensible pair of trousers and a cat fur-covered old woolly coat thing to defy July and her evil temperatures.

And a firm pair of socks of course.

I won't go into my underwear preferences for that would be poor form, although I often don two T-shirts when the southerlies (the South Island's greatest export) come a calling.

But I never wear warming headgear, for I am not a hat person.

Roger Moroney

Were I to wear a hat I would be looked upon as mad ... as a hatter can be.

On the most severe of winter days, when the mercury is juggling the numbers 0 and 1, and the grey clouds refuse to allow the sun access, I find things to do inside.

But I'm lucky to some degree that I have never felt the cold too severely, but yep, it still bites.

However, I am sure it is an age thing, for when I was a kid (and like most other kids) it never really rattled me.

We'd wander off to primary school in our shorts, and jackets of course, and stamp on the iced-up puddles on the way to make them crack like glass.

And come sports time, yep, we'd defy the evil southerlies of July.

If I went outside now in a pair of shorts and a heavy T-shirt I would barely last a minute.

What helps a lot of kids defy the chill is sport, and kids and sport make my day.

There was a spot of post-frost drizzle a couple of Saturday mornings back, but while outside chasing away roaming polar bears I could hear the distant whistles and starter horns from the park ... signalling the evolving of another netball game.

The young participants, and their parents and caregivers, were enjoying themselves.

And on other occasions, while driving into town to buy a collar for the polar bear I managed to capture, I have passed a local intermediate and out there, in the chilled air and occasional spots of rain, are the kids at hockey practice ... some with leggings on but others with just shorts or skirts and bare legs.

Our kids all played sport, for there was a real buzz in being involved with a team.

And our grandkids also all hit the fields and courts.

Teammates.

Team players one and all.

Once, when our lad was about 7, he was keen to try soccer so into the team he went.

And, on one of the coldest mornings of that winter, off we went to the local fields to watch him play.

It was so cold the referee (teacher) created a swath of smiles and nods of agreement by deciding the game would be played in two 15-minute halves ... not the usual 20.

One of the little goalkeepers was wearing more wool than an unshorn merino.

But they played and chirped ... and shivered together most stoically.

The parents on the sidelines were equally stoic, but I daresay a few would have been thinking how grand it would be if the kids decided to maybe take up snooker or darts instead.

I see them today.

Out there upon the cold fields playing the games they love to play.

With their mates.

Teamship.

The weather?

Who cares.

The heater's on back at home and mum'll make a hot drink to thaw the system.

Kids and sport defy the cold, and only the most severe rainstorms and surface flooding will lead to cancellations.

Frost?

Ahhh, it's only baby ice cubes ... who cares.

Even kids going to school seem to defy the winters as I still spot a good number wearing shorts.

Their insulation systems, being relatively young and new, are at their peaks of thermal ability.

Wait'll you get into the 60s kids ... the thinning and crumbling of the insulation kind of shows through.

Oh yeah, and the other thing that I'm sure acclimatises kids to winter is school holiday time during this shivering season.

Once again ... first two days of the holidays ... and it rained.

• Roger Moroney is an award-winning journalist and observer of the slightly off centre