Growing up we lived in a tiny house with an enormous yard. While the thousand square-foot, shake-shingled, hundred-year-old house was cozy on the inside; outside, the yard was immense. I believe that our house actually was perched on several town lots, hence the size. The portion of the yard with the house was dotted with lilac trees, a honey-suckle bush, a giant blue spruce and an apple tree. But back past that was a large stretch of lawn with numerous cottonwood trees on the perimeter, several boulders (that will be another Time-Warp post) and ... THE sledding hill!
When we were younger, my siblings and I would spend hours out on the hill. We would pack down the fluffy snow with our floppy, blue plastic sleds. Joshua would be the first to go down since he was bigger. Then we girls would do our part. Eventually, we would have a pretty good run prepared. With each trip down the hill we packed the snow and polished it ... increasing our speed with each run. Sometimes we even built a ramp at the bottom so that we could speed down the slope, shoot off the jump and land, sprawling, in the frozen tundra!
Here is the snapshot that brings back such fond, frozen memories:
That little cutie in the front (with the snow packed on the outside of her fur-lined boots) is my baby sissy, Allison. On the front of the sled is my cousin Megan. She appears to be sitting on my lap. Perhaps she didn't what to get her tender California hiney to get cold! That's me right behind/under Meg :) and Joshua, my big brother is ready to shove us down the hill. The little hiney in the front, by process of elimination, must belong Megan's younger sister, Corrine.
Can you feel the excitement? Can you feel the cold? Can you feel your toes going numb?
I so terribly wish that our photographer had also taken a snapshot from the bottom of the hill looking up to get the whole effect. She wouldn't have needed to back up much because that hill really only came up to about my hip. And that's really saying something because I'm short.
Our sledding "hill" was a short, little embankment up to the ditch that ran along the west side of our property. Our trip down on our sled took approximately 1.2 seconds. It took us four big steps to get back to the top.
In reality it was more of a knoll. A mound. A hump.
But in my memories ... it was a Hill. (With a capital "H"!) A big, powdery, frozen hill to careen down on our sleds. We would go over and over again until we couldn't feel our fingers or toes and Mom made us come in and (painfully) thaw-out in front of the pot-bellied stove.
How many other memories are so much bigger because we were so small? How many other memories are so magical because our eyes were so young?
That is one of my goals as a mom: to keep my kids enjoying the small and simple bits of life ... because someday they will look back and those moments will be big and magical!
What a wonderful trip down the memory lane. I love the photo. It captured the true child innocence and happiness. I agree with you, simple things like that make long lasting memories.
ReplyDeleteHaha... I remember going down the "hill" in back of our apartment in Germany in the snow. It probably was just a tiny little thing that I thought was big. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Visiting from SITS.
ReplyDeleteYou three would be sooooo happy, UNTIL you began to thaw and then you would just sit on the sofa and cry :( It broke my heart. You all were so cute then...like little puppies :) xoxmomxox
ReplyDeleteI have so many fond memories of playing in the snow with my brother! We used to be stay outside forever; the cold never seemed to bother us!
ReplyDelete