Tap-Dancing To ‘Sixteen Tons’ On The Hood

For the past few months, All Things Considered has asked for your memories of music that reminds you of winter.

For listener Veronica Horton of Vermillion, S.D., “Tennessee” Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons” reminds her of dancing in the back of a barn in Minnesota.

“When I connected with that song, I was living in a little town called Forest Lake, Minn. We lived in the country,” Horton says in an interview with All Things Considered host Melissa Block. “My mom and dad were hard-working people, and you made fun with what you had. Come a weekend, my mom would have the radio playing and she’d always be singing along with it. I remember us kids always snapping our fingers and going along with Ernie Ford.