Snow Days

Recent weather reminded me of my childhood. Snow days were absolutely wonderful!

When I was a child we lived in the same house that my parents live in today. The backyard is flat because it is terraced out of a hillside. The yard of the neighbor to the right is uphill and the one to the left downhill.

All three yards are fenced now and full of all sorts of things like pools, trees, and flower gardens to make the outdoors more relaxing and beautiful, but when I was a child there were none of those. It was just two neighboring hills with our plateaued yard between. There was nothing but wide open spaces.

In my mind, snow seemed rare in our part of Ohio back then. Our subdivision was on the edge of civilization, unlike the busy metropolitan outskirt that it is today, so snow automatically meant a snow day because of the country roads that led to my school. Perhaps there were as many days of snow then as there are now but it doesn't seem as though we missed many days of school. My dad worked third shift during some of those years so staying home was not a problem. He was asleep until late afternoon and I had orders not to leave the house. I'd watch television or read quietly until he awoke. When he got up the fun began.

My parents bought me a large sled one year for Christmas. It is big even by modern standards. I've never seen another one like it but it soon became apparent why they bought such a large one. It was not going to be mine alone. I was small of stature and could stretch out full length on it. My dad is close to 6 feet tall and the sled easily accommodated his length, too. We'd ride double-decker down, starting at the very top of the higher neighbor's yard, shoot across our own, then down the neighboring lower hill. We'd always land just short of the trees lining the creek bed at the bottom. I'm an only child but my mother always says that she had two children.

I don't remember having special snow gear like the snow apparel that kids wear today. I just remember wearing two or three pairs of everything. Once the wetness reached my skin and hurt to the point where I couldn't take it anymore it was time to go in. It seemed like it took quite a long time to peel all the wet layers off in the entry. By that time my mom would have the hot chocolate ready (made the old fashioned way because this was in pre-microwave ovens days). It was as comforting to hold the cup as it was to drink the liquid.

I never wanted to stop sled riding until I absolutely had to do so because a snow rarely lasted more than one day. If I didn't get outside when the snow was fresh I didn't get outside to play in it at all. And there was nothing worse than being sick and made to stay inside on the day it snowed.

I still have the sled. But even though I live on a high hill there is not a good sledding hill in this neighborhood. Sledding excursions require us to load up the car with all the gear and drive to a park. The effect is not quite the same. But once I got nostalgic and took the Bear and the sled out to the park for a spin. We had a good time but didn't stay there long. Somehow, I don't remember it being quite so exhausting pulling that sled back up to the top of the hill when I was a child.

I don't know how dad did it.