It never ceases to amaze me that the first hint of snow turns me into a kid again. I still get the feeling of excitement at a good snow fall. As a kid I looked forward to no school, do some shoveling and then go play in the snow. Building snow forts and sledding until your fingers and toes felt like they were frost bitten were my favorite activities. Oh to be a kid again. Too bad work doesn’t always shut down for snow.
I grew up down the street from Green Brook Park in Plainfield, New Jersey. That park was everything as a kid hangout that took us through the seasons. In the summer you played pick up baseball and in the fall you played football. But in the winter the park became our resort. Depending on your preference you could sled, toboggan, ski, or ice skate. As my memory fades I am unsure how long our winter sports lasted, but it seemed to be for the whole winter. The pond, Horseshoe Pond, always seemed frozen. Those of you that are my age, didn’t it seem like we got more snow back then and the ice stayed frozen all winter? Just sayin.
One Christmas I remember getting a new sled, an American Flyer, and it snowed like anything. What else was there to do but head down to the park. Getting there early in the morning and plowing down those hills got you to get the snow to the right consistency for sledding. You couldn’t beat that experience with a stick.
There were several hills each having their own type of drawing power. Let me start with Killer Hill. Doesn’t it seem like any place you can sled has a killer hill? That hill took you over a jump at the bottom and sometimes it was a challenge to stay on the sled. Then there was the one that ended up in the pond. It was this hill that when it became too icy from over sledding, turned into a downhill ice skating shalom ending on the pond below. Then there was the hill at the back of Jefferson School and that one emptied into the street. Most times the road was blocked but when it wasn’t we had to have a look out person and time out our rides so no one got hit by a passing car.
We also went to the Country Club on the other side of town to sled. There seems to be less and less places to sled these days. It seems that the focus is less on fun and more on litigation.
Ice skating also placed a big part of the winter but I’ll leave that for another day. We have an arctic blast of air coming in the next day or two. So maybe I’ll get a bit nostalgic for the ice.
Needless to say I look forward to the next snow so that I can think back to the great times I had riding the hills.
How do you remember winter?
AgingwithHennessey 