Crossing guard Virgil Woody spent about 35 minutes outdoors in Thursday morning’s subzero wind chills.

The number of students he assisted?

One.

His customer was a girl on her way to Clinton Elementary School in South Elgin.

But that’s OK, he said. It would have been fine even if no students had walked to school Thursday, because that’s his job, and he loves it.

“I enjoy being around kids. These kids at this age, what I call grammar school, they don’t give you any problems,” the 69-year-old Elgin resident said. “After they cross, I also cross the street to keep an eye on them until they turn the corner. It’s a nice quiet neighborhood, but I want to make sure they get there and they don’t fool around.”

Freezing temperatures like Thursday’s mean serious business when it comes to clothing. Wood wore thermal underwear plus two shirts and a hooded sweatshirt under his winter coat, along with three pairs of socks with insulated boots. Still, “it was cold,” he said, not surprisingly.

Woody worked as a crossing guard for the Elgin Police Department for eight years before cutbacks led to his job in South Elgin about four years ago.

Crossing guards often fly under the radar, South Elgin Deputy Police Chief Randy Endean said. “The role of the crossing guard is important and what they do is appreciated,” he said.

Woody got used to braving freezing temperatures during his 35 years of work as a ramp service agent for United Airlines at O’Hare International Airport, where he de-iced and refueled planes, and loaded and unloaded baggage.

His worst experience was while working the winter midnight shift sometime in the 1970s, when the winds were so strong the plane had to be moved to block the wind, lest it take off one of the doors. “That was brutally cold.”

His crossing guard job doesn’t bring many surprises, but he did get an unexpected marketing visit last year from a representative of a company that sells hand warmers. “He gave me some to try, but I didn’t like them,” he said. “Gloves are fine.”