You Bet Your Life: How I Survived Jim Crow Racism, Hurricane Chasing, and Gambling by Spencer Christian

Author:Spencer Christian [Christian, Spencer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Weather
ISBN: 9781682616406
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2018-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

Frozen in Time

As my assignments at GMA spanned an ever-widening range of topics, venues, and purposes, the program’s producers continually tried to dream up new themes and more creative situations for my on-the-road reports. One of the most brilliant ideas—yet, most uncomfortable for me—was “Spencer’s Great North-to-South Adventure.” Before I describe it, let me tell you how this idea was born.

Within my first two years on the show, it had become widely known to regular viewers (and GMA producers) that I had a low tolerance for cold weather. In fact, I hated it! Whenever I was on a location where the temperature was near or below freezing, you could see me shivering every time I appeared on camera. It actually became sort of a running joke. As Charlie and Joan would toss to me in a cold, snowy location, they would describe to me how warm and cozy they felt back in the studio. This generated lots of laughs and gained me tons of sympathy from viewers—many of whom sent me scarves, earmuffs, hats, gloves, and other items to keep me warm.

And so my great North-to-South adventure was born. It was a weeklong assignment in February 1996. The trip would begin at a very cold spot in the far north and take me to points farther south, and presumably warmer, each day. This was the itinerary:

Monday: Quebec City, Quebec

Tuesday: Killington, Vermont

Wednesday: Washington, D.C.

Thursday: Savannah, Georgia

Friday: Key West, Florida

I arrived in Quebec City on the Saturday before my broadcast week was to begin. The annual event known as Winter Carnival was underway, and the weather conditions certainly matched the theme. On each of the three days I was there, the wind-chill factor was minus 70, as in 70 degrees below zero! Although I wasn’t scheduled to be on the air until Monday, there was much setup work to be done over the weekend, and I had to be out in that brutally cold weather for several hours of prep work. It was the most painful chill I had ever felt. When I went to bed Sunday night, I felt anxious, almost frightened, about the next morning’s broadcast.

My wake-up call came at 4:00 a.m. I got up and put on so many layers of clothing that I waddled rather than walked down the hall to the elevator. From the moment I stepped outside my hotel, I felt like a six-foot-two icicle. Within just a few minutes, a crust of ice had formed on my mustache. My facial muscles quickly became numb and tight, almost frozen. I couldn’t enunciate clearly. I was on location from about 6:00 to 9:00 a.m., with no place to duck inside and get warm between my on-air segments. This was the worst discomfort I have felt in my entire life.

In nearly all of my eight or nine appearances on the air during those three hours, I was either interviewing or describing some hearty souls who were reveling in the deep chill of Carnaval de Québec. In one segment, I interviewed snow bathers who showed up in swimsuits and rolled around in the ice and snow.

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