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 Boomerang!

“Reflecting” is a special area devoted to sharing memories. This section basically is written by our readers. We will announce a topic two months prior to the edition in which it will appear to give folks the opportunity to send us emails and, if they like, digital photos based on the upcoming theme.

We’ll be asking for around 150-250 words longand reserve the right to edit things down so that we can include memories from as many people as possible. We hope that each month’s theme will offer an opportunity for discussion— conversation starters if you will—with our families, friends and coworkers.

email Betty Boom

Upcoming reflections:

January—New Year's Resolutions kept

New Year's Resolutoins gone awry

February—First kiss, first valentine, first crush