Residents bundle up as mercury dips with arrival of winter front
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Staff photo by Barry Halvorson While requiring a little more bundling up, local resident Brady Hough is happy the weather's gotten cooler. "It's a nice break from the heat,' he said while collecting carts at H-E-B.

Ushering in Thanksgiving and the generally recognized start of the holiday season was a polar air front that dropped temperatures from the 70s and 80s to the 40s and 50s.

And according to several area residents and visitors, colder weather made for a pleasant change.

"I don't mind the change in weather," Brady Hough of Wharton said. An employee collecting shopping carts in the H-E-B parking lot, Hough was bundled up on Friday.

"It's a nice break from the heat. I find these kinds of temperatures invigorating."

The cooler temperature also made things easier for Lucas Erdelt, who was Radio Shack's Santa along Boling Highway Friday morning.

"The colder weather helps with the costume because of all the padding," he said. "And with the cold weather things just seem a little more festive."

Staff photo by Barry Halvorson If the grin is any indication, Joshua Barrera knows that Santa will be coming to town and soon. Joshua's grandfather Ruben Barrera was also feeling the holiday spirit that comes with cooler temperatures and was out with the family on Friday enjoying the results of the polar front that moved through the area this week.

For those hitting the stores on Friday, considered the busiest shopping day of the year, the chilly temperatures put them in the mood for some holiday purchases.

"Two days ago, it was hot and humid," Boling's Ruben Barrera said. He was out with his grandson, Joshua, and other family members. "I was working when I felt the winds come in. I like the cool but this time it has been a drastic change, but one that was needed. And cooler weather has always helped me get in the holiday spirit."

Another Boling resident, Gale Penrice, said the drop in temperature was something he'd been looking forward to happening.

"I love the cooler weather. You're just more comfortable than when it's hot and humid. And it gets me in the Christmas spirit."

While George Gaona of Wharton shared the opinion that a drop in the thermometer means Christmas is around the corner, it also meant his daughter Kindsey has plans to make.

"I like it, it feels like Christmas," she said. "I haven't started my Christmas wish list but it feels like time to start one."

Others were learning Friday that colder weather this close to Christmas means warmer hearts.

Houston's Justin Phillips and Clear Lake's Olivia Urbanowicz were in Wharton Friday collecting donations for the Wishing Well Foundation, an organization granting the wishes of chronically and terminally ill children.

"You can tell Christmas is coming when the temperature changes," Phillips said.

"And I think the colder weather brings out the best in people this time of year. People have been really nice to us."

For Urbanowicz, Friday's weather was also a taste of her childhood home.

"I love it," she said. "I'm from Canada originally so it takes me back. And it definitely makes it feel more like the holidays."

And for another visitor, the weather change was just a small part of this Thanksgiving weekend.

Plano resident Bruce Murray, son-in-law of Dr. Keith Dowell, was out picking up a few things with his son, Matthew, Friday morning.

"I always find it refreshing to be in Wharton for the holidays. It's a nice change from all the hectic traffic of the big city. And the colder weather just adds to the holiday spirit."