FORT WAYNE – Winter left its footprint on Fort Wayne for the first time Tuesday evening, leaving pedestrians with soaked feet and doubtlessly leaving some drivers wondering where they put their windshield scrapers last spring.

At Freimann Square, winter’s foot landed smack on top of the tents that have been occupying the park for several weeks.

By Wednesday morning, the results were evident. A handful of tents were sagging seriously under the weight of the wet snow that fell the afternoon and evening before, and people were laying out blankets and sleeping bags to dry out in the cold sunshine.

I dropped by the park to see how the participants in Occupy Fort Wayne had fared on their first truly miserable night. There were only about four people there, one man busily sweeping slush off the concrete around his tent, and three others milling about in a sturdier party tent that houses a kitchen of sorts, making coffee and rolling their own cigarettes.

No, I was told by Jeremy Hartman and Wes Tipton, the night wasn’t that bad. The snow had stopped by 1 a.m. As long as you swept the snow off the tent every few minutes you were OK. If you got in your tent and under some blankets, it really wasn’t that bad. The only real problem was condensation on the inside of the tent.

Someone had suggested spraying antifreeze on the tents so the snow would melt as soon as it hit the tents. A guy who had been in the Army said they did that in Afghanistan, said Tipton. He’s not sure how good that would be for the environment, though. Tipton quickly added that no one has sprayed antifreeze on anything.

Around the country, Occupy protests have been a lot bigger than in Fort Wayne. They have gradually been getting pushed out of the parks they turned into campgrounds in September. The settlement has disappeared from Zuccotti Park in New York. Occupy Oakland was forcibly emptied not long ago, and this week police in Los Angeles finally evicted hundreds of campers in front of City Hall.

It’s easy to understand why the crowds remained so large in places such as L.A. There are more people in that city, it’s a lot warmer and it practically never rains there. Camping out in protest is easy.

A few inches of heavy, wet snow makes it a lot harder.

The city won’t let the occupy protesters here have anything with open flames, no propane, nothing. In South Bend they can use propane, Hartman said.

“I think the city is trying to freeze us out,” he said.

If that’s true, it’s working, sort of. Only about five people, if that, actually slept in tents the night of the snow.

Of the 10 or so tents scattered around the square, most are empty most of the time.

The small number of hangers-on disappoints Hartman. He wishes they could have up to 50 people, he said. There were nearly 400 people at their first march, he said. He wonders where they are now.

Later, as temperatures rose and almost all the snow disappeared, talk turned back to the weather. They needed to winterize, someone said. Winterizing involves rounding up blankets, long johns and anything waterproof, such as tarps or plastic sheeting.

Oddly, other than a sign mentioning 99 percent leaning on a wall at the edge of the square, there was no talk of politics, banks, rich people, greed, unemployment and so on.

I guess when you reach the snow season, staying warm and dry becomes the focus of the occupy movement, at least in these parts.