I grew up an hour south of Cleveland and we had record cold around that same time. I was in 5th grade at the time and I remember it was the first time I ever had school cancelled the night before.
I was a junior in high school. I remember school being off because we dipped to 25 below. Even in the bright sunshine that day, it was still -20 around noon. I went outside, and it was colder than anything I could imagine...
On a side note, one of the local orchards lost 80% of their peach trees that year - not just the crop, but the entire trees died.