MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And finally this hour, another Winter Song story. Over the past few months, we've asked for your memories of music that reminds you of winter. And, today, we bring you one listener's memory about dancing on a cold day in Minnesota to music sung by a man nicknamed Tennessee.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIXTEEN TONS")
VERONICA HORTON: My name is Veronica Horton and my winter song is by Ernie Ford and it's "Sixteen Tons" and what do you get?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BLOCK: What do you get?
HORTON: (Singing) You get another day older and deeper in debt.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIXTEEN TONS")
HORTON: When I connected with that song, I was living in a little town called Forest Lake, Minnesota and we lived in the country. And my mom and dad were hard working people, and you made fun with what you had. And come a weekend, my mom would have the radio playing and she's always be singing along with it and I remember us kids always snapping our fingers and going along with Ernie Ford.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIXTEEN TONS")
HORTON: It takes me back to Thanksgiving weekend, 1963. You know, the country was in turmoil and it'd only been a week since the president had been assassinated. And I can remember going outside and just feeling safe. You know, my parents always made us feel safe at home.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIXTEEN TONS")
HORTON: We had ponies. They were out in the field and they had their winter coats. You know, they were all fuzzy and wooly looking and we had an old car that kind of bit the dust and my dad parked it out back of the barn and that's where it was laid to rest.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HORTON: So, you know, I just remember being bundled up. We hadn't had any snow yet and it was so cold. It was like almost like you could feel it trying to snow, but it just wouldn't.
I went outside and I had my western boots on and I climbed up on the roof of that car and I tap danced out "Sixteen Tons" and totally uninhibited and it was wonderful. My horses looked at me like, what is she doing? You know.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIXTEEN TONS")
BLOCK: How old were you, Veronica?
HORTON: I was 12. Yeah. And, you know, nothing can beat the feeling of dancing on the hood of an old car. You can't get a video game that does that to you.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BLOCK: Well, Veronica Horton, thanks for talking to us about "Sixteen Tons" and your Winter Song and dance memory.
HORTON: Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure, Melissa.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIXTEEN TONS")
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.