“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”
Batten down the hatches. Snow is coming. It will start this afternoon and continue into tomorrow. We here on the Cape might not get as many inches as it could mix with rain. I have a few things to do before the snow comes. The bird feeders need filling. I’m out of bread and coke so a quick stop at the grocery store is in order, and my trunk is filled for a dump run. Sadly, today looks just like yesterday, gray and bleak. Winter is tiresome and snow has lost its wonder.
I remember when every snowstorm was a gift. Sometimes we got a day off, and that was the best of all because we got to spend the day sledding, and nothing was more fun than sledding. We all had wooden sleds, and the first few runs down the hill left red trails as the snow cleared the rust of summer. At the top of the hill, we’d grab our sleds and run as fast as we could then we’d jump on our sleds. Legs below the knees were in the air so they wouldn’t hamper our speed but they were the best brakes. The snow crunched as the blades ran through it. We’d hold on to the front of the sleds so we could steer. It was always a race to the bottom and to whose sled went the farthest. My sled had a rope attached so I could pull it back up the hill. I remember the rope used to freeze. My friends and I would walk together and talk mostly about the snow and our sleds. The hill was a street, and it was huge and long. Snow plows back then always seemed to leave enough snow for sleds. We’d spend the entire day speeding down the hill then walking back up. Sheer exhaustion finally sent us inside. The sleds were left standing straight up in a pile of snow.
Nothing beat the joy of flying down that hill.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
January 26, 2011 at 1:58 pm
I still have one of my wooden sleds- will eventually pass it on to someone- as I don’t use it anymore- but- I have been tempted- and someday I might!
Thanks for the Coffee and the memories.
stay warm
Pat
January 26, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Pat,
I hope you find a kid who understands the worth of your gift!
You are welcome. It has always been my pleasure.
January 26, 2011 at 2:26 pm
I lived in Brooklyn, NY until just before my sixth birthday when my family moved to Dallas. I fondly remember winter snows and sledding down the hills in Highland park. My mother would bundle me up in a snow suite, rubber boots and woolen mittens. My father would load my ‘Flexible Flyer’ sled into the trunk of the Buick and we would drive to the nearest park that had hills. After several runs down the hill and getting soaked my dad and I would return home to a cup of hot chocolate prepared my mother with a marshmallow floating on top.
That first summer in Dallas was one of the hottest on record. We didn’t have central air conditioning and I had no use for the sled even in January.
January 26, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Bob,
Your sledding story is so much like mine, but I forgot about the cocoa and the marshmallow. I waited until the white covered the whole top before I’d drink it.It always left a white mustache.
It’s sad to think of never sledding again.
January 26, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Even if I can´t remember liking winter even when I was young I did like going down hills on my sled 🙂 But I lived not far away from a big park with lots of slopes and no cars. My sled however had sort of plastic skies and it felt like it could continue for ever 🙂
No snow here the coming ten days they say, but temperatures will go up and down a lot. So the little snow that came yesterday will be gone soon again 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
January 26, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Christer,
It was such a rush sledding down the hill. It was my street so we didn’t have far to go. I loved my sled.
Snow tonight!
January 27, 2011 at 7:04 am
Hi Kat,
The hill was my side yard and all the neighborhood kids came here with sleds. We’d run and slide and end up in the swamp, crashing into grass hillocks. Whee! Sometimes, though, we would take a field trip to Otis hill and sled there. It was a street with a double hill and the town would sometimes close it to traffic on snow days. It was great because the upper hill was really steep and you could get up a good head of speed. Then there was a short flat place to glide followed by another hill. Wow! And definitely chocolate with marshmallows on top after we came in.
I wish I liked snow half so much now as I did then. Kids see only the fun parts of snow like snow days and sledding and snowball fights. Adults usually experience only the rotten parts of snow, like shoveling and plowing and driving in it.
January 27, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Hi Caryn,
You are so right about an adult’s view of snow. I called it an inconvenience and that was being kind. I should remember racing down that hill with the wind in my face. One run made all of winter worthwhile.
I remember when I’d come in my legs would be beat red and my hands and feet freezing. Nothing like cocoa to warm the innards.