We finally got some snow and Christian was thrilled. He absolutely loves to play in it and he really likes getting a day off from school because of it. Shane stayed home with him and they had a blast. Here a couple videos of their snowy adventures. For those of my Michigan family, I realize that the snow on the sledding hill is a bit pitiful by U.P. standards but here in our neck of the woods you take what you can get!
Getting this snowfall made me feel a bit homesick. I remember how I felt on those mornings finding out that school was cancelled because of a blizzard. In Sault Ste. Marie, they closed our schools because we got 5 feet of snow, not 3 inches!!!! But we would all ( I had 5 brothers and sisters) get bundled up in the morning after breakfast and all the kids in the neighborhood would play outside -- usually all day long -- building snow forts. We would have so much snow that we could really tunnel into the huge snow banks created by the snow plows that plowed out our driveways and we could hollow out spaces big enough for a couple of us to crawl into and sit down. And, these tunnels and forts would last for a while because it was so cold and we could play in them for a days on end.
Ah, the cold, that is a whole other story too. When I was a kid it was no big deal for the temperature to drop below zero. As a matter of fact we welcomed the freezing temperatures because that meant it was cold enough to build our own ice rink in the yard. My dad would help us section off a large rectangular space in the yard and then we would use shovels to pack that space down really flat and smooth. This would create a wall around the perimeter a few inches high and then we could flood it with water from the hose. Before long all that water would freeze and we'd have our very own ice rink. I learned how to skate on one of those homemade rinks. I started out with double runner skates and I'd hold onto the back of an old kitchen chair for balance and push it around the ice. I took many a tumble but I always had a brother or sister close by to help me back up and eventually I got the hang of it. Gosh, it's been years since I've been on ice skates. What a great place to grow up!
If any of my brothers or sisters are reading this post, I love you and I miss you and I remember! :0)
4 comments:
Those are great videos of Christian in the snow. It sounds like they had a great time together that day.
I love your stories from growing up. So much fun! How cool that your dad made you your own ice rink. That's a clever idea.
I remember my sister and I would play outside in the snow for hours and hours. Then when it was time to come in, we didn't want to. I miss those days when life was so easy and fun! :-)
5 feet of SNOW???? Oh. My. Sooo glad he got out to enjoy what "little" we had... :)
Yep, 5 feet of snow and sometimes more -- I've got pictures to prove it! :0)
We had rinks in our back yard too. I have some pictures of me skating on them. I think dad would make them by himself though. I never remember helping. I remember some of the Laker hockey players skating on the rinks in the yard.
I also remember cleaning the ice in front of the cabin and skating there. I used an old children's rocking chair to push.
Ahhhhh, snow days. They were awesome weren't they? Those snow forts give me the creeps though. Now being a mother, I think of them collapsing. Of course, it never happened to us did it?
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