Reflecting
Winter fun reflections
What did you do for fun in the winter?
Baby, it's cold outside! Well, for most of the country
it's cold and for a lot of us it's snowy, too. Before we became
adults and had to drive in the stuff, we hoped for a white Christmas
and more...enough so to, say, close school?
Snow days and weekends meant fun! Skating, sled
riding, building snowmen...hitting our friends with the snow balls.
There's no reason we can't still do these things although snow
days for work don't happen that often.
Here, a few boomers share their wintertime experiences.
It's a long season so we invite you to share your snow day story,
too. Keep warm!
Snow
People
My parents hailed from western Canada so they were both
snow bunnies. Once we had a good snow they took us out to
play. Both of them were proud of their snow sculpting skills
and I remember we made a snow family. Mom and Dad snowman
were a good five feet tall and all the kids in the neighborhood
came over to see these life size snow folks.
In winter of '61 in New York we had a huge
snow storm with drifts taller than me. My dad went out in
the yard and dug a snow maze while my mom carved out snow
chairs and shelves. We spent hours out there in our snow
labyrinth and hated to see it melt away as the weeks wore
on.
—Betty
Boom (boomer cred: born 1955)
|
Those
Daring Kids in Their Flyin' Machines
When we were kids we would go
to nearby French Park to go sledding. When I think back
now I shudder a bit. Some of the things we did were pretty
daring. Most of the best hills ended in tall weeds and the
only way to stop was to crash into them. When we were little,
we took the small hills, but as we grew we wanted to tackle
larger and larger hills. To make the largest hill more challenging
some older kids would make additional mounds along the way
and if you hit them fast enough you took off in the air
before crashing into the weeds. Once we'd conquered that
we looked for ways to get more speed or unique "sleds."
I remember once waxing the inside of a car bumper which
made a pretty good rocket, er, sled!
—Lucy S. (boomer
cred: born 1957) |
Whipping
Winter Doldrums
Growing up, my siblings and I
had to entertain ourselves a lot. We were
often told to "go outside and play." In winter
that would mean skating,
sledding, building a snowman or snow fort, or having a snowball
fight.
The pond we could walk to was
OK, but the skating rink was much better.
People actually maintained it and cleared the ice off. Plus,
there was
a building to go in to warm up periodically, or if you were
lucky, buy
a hot chocolate.
I liked playing "crack the
whip." Several skaters held hands and tried
to make quick, sudden moves causing the people on the end
to lose their
grip and spin off, all in good fun.
—Roxy Boomwinkle
(boomer cred: born 1958)
back to top
|
| |
| |
| |
|
Share
Your Memories With Us
"Reflections"
is a special area devoted to sharing memories. This section basically
is written by our readers.
Our next topic is "Valentine's memories."
If you'd like to share a memory with the Boomerang community,
please send it to us by email
.
Write between 100 and 200 words and, if you like,
scan in a photo to include.
We reserve the right to edit things down so that
we can include memories from as many people as possible.
We hope that each theme will offer an opportunity
for discussion — conversation starters if you will —
with our families, friends and coworkers.
|
