Snow Memories

I remember the year that it snowed so hard my mother tied a rope to my brother and then to the house so he could cross the driveway. Across the driveway was the hay barn that also housed a horse, that needed to be fed. You couldn't even see across the driveway. The rope stay tied to the barn door for a few days. The snow covered the cars and the tractor that year. The only thing you could see from the car was the antenna and the only thing on the tractor was the pipe. We were off school for a week. The snow plow came down the street and had to keep backing up and plowing or pushing. Then it would stop and back up and push some more snow out of the way. When the snowing finally stopped we were able to go play outside. I am sure my mother kicked us all out. We dug out the tractor seat and sat in it, and made forts galore. You were never suppose to make forts in drifts but what else would you do. We made forts out of blocks of snow and had snowball fights.

Snow was so much fun as a child. The man down the street always made a makeshift ice rink. I began ice skating with a pair of skates that had two runners on the bottom. You would have to stop every now and then to clean out the runners. We called them gutters. I have a nice scar above one knee from falling as a teenager. The end of the skate went through all the layers of clothes and into the skin. Still ice skating was so much fun.

Toboganning. When I first came to Texas I heard a man ask where the tobogans were in the store. I was thinking what is he asking for one of those for there is not enough snow for toboganning. Well, it was for his head. Another story all together. Joe and I went toboganning on a date. We were in love but not married yet. He was on the front of a long tobogan and his brothers were behind him. The first one has his legs folded under the front of the tobogan and the rest had their legs around the person in front of them. As they sped down the hill they headed straight for a concrete wall. The brothers started piling out. Now in Joe's defense it is hard to see when all the snow is flying in your face so the next thing you know Joe is laying on the ground next to concrete wall and the tobogan is broken. My bad sense of humor kicked in and I could not stop laughing. Joe was so mad at me. He was saying how can you say you love me and laugh at me, I'm hurt. Oh well, he got use to it over all our years together.

The last memory was the reality of the weather in NY. Our car would not start and Joe brought in the spark plugs and put them in the over on warm. After a few minutes he took them back out to the car and put them in and then the car started. The next winter we were in Texas.

I love getting just enough snow to make a snowman about once a year. Stay warm all my northern friends, it was up to 50 today and felt great.