My goal in writing this column is to try and stir up memories in you about things that have happened in your life. Once a story also becomes your story, and not just mine, I’ve accomplished what I try to do each week. I also hope those memories are good ones.
I’d like to share with you a letter I received from a reader in Iowa, who shared her winter memories with me. I think you’ll enjoy it too.
After reading your Across the Fence column this week in the Linn News-Letter, I wanted to write to you. To this day a wave of excitement surges through me when I hear of an approaching snowstorm. It must be because as a kid it meant a “No School Snow Day.” The road would be drifted shut and we were not going anywhere! We went to bed thinking how it would look outside when we woke up. When morning dawned, we peered through the frosty windows to see a winter wonderland. We could hardly wait to get into those big drifts. First we had to eat our breakfast and go help dad with the chores of feeding the calves, pigs, chickens, sheep, and our rabbits, since it was going to take him extra long with all the snow. Sometimes we had to help him clean out the cow gutter in the barn, and when it was too nasty to turn the cows out, there was plenty of manure to pitch.
But back to the fun stuff…the snowdrifts. The wind whipping the snow around the buildings had created eerie looking mountains to conquer. Sometimes the snow crust was so hard we could walk on top and go right over the fences. Sometimes the livestock had the same idea. We could even climb right up on the hog roof.
Then there were the tunnels and forts we could build in the drifts and have them connected to each other. Even the dog and cats had to get in on the fun. After digging for what seemed like hours of fun, it was time to go in for dinner. We’d take off our cold, soggy mittens and lay them over the big furnace ducts (insulated on the outside with asbestos), which were connected to the big stoker furnace. Mom would have delicious homemade vegetable, chicken noodle, or chili soup, and toasted cheese sandwiches waiting for us, plus brownies, pie, or cake for dessert. After our tummies were full and we were warmed up, we’d get all bundled up again, pull on our now toasty, warm, dry, stiff mittens and head outside for some more fun.
When I was a teenager, my three brothers, my sister, and I came up with the idea of using metal hog feeder lids, flipped over, for sleds. They were shaped like the plastic disc sleds that kids use today. We tied them together with a good length of bailing twine and begged our dad to pull us around in the field, behind his tractor. The rider in the back always had the best ride because they’d whiplash around more. The one in the front lid usually got sprayed with lots of snow. Later, my oldest brother took an old hood off a truck and a bigger and better sled was invented. We’d tie three or four car or truck hoods together using haymow rope, because it was heavier. We filled gunny feed sacks with straw to sit on and could get at least four friends in each hood. Dad loved pulling us and had as much fun as we did. Many times someone would roll off and the sled behind went over them, usually with no injuries, because the snow was so deep. We had quite a few sledding parties with our UMYF youth group from church and 4-H clubs. Who says you need a hill for sledding? Afterwards we’d go in the house for hot cocoa and sandwiches that I’m sure my mom invented. She would grind up bologna and Colby cheese, mix in some mayonnaise, grind up some of her homemade sweet pickles, and spread it on open face hamburger buns and put them under the oven broiler until the cheese was bubbly. Oh so good!
When our children were kids, a “No School Snow Day” meant the same. The chores were a little easier, but the fun was the same, tunneling in drifts around the buildings and down our long lane. Our youngest daughter went sledding off the roof of our cow maternity pen into the drifts, using her plastic sled of course, but I’m not sure it survived. Many times the school decided the buses would take only the hard surface roads, so our kids usually had an extra day off.
Today I look out at the high, eerie drifts that the wind whipped together last night after our new foot and a half of snow, and think…I’ll just go out and take some pictures, watch our grandchildren from next door play in them as they create their own memories, and maybe I’ll just jump in. After all, it’s a “No School Snow Day!” Thank you for helping me to remember, and the opportunity to write it down and share with you.
Thank you, Kathy, for sharing your memories with us!
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