Editor’s Corner: Snow Days
To say I had a blast playing in the snow last week is to put it mildly. Every single time it snows, I am transported back to my childhood. I remember being that little girl living in the country, surrounded by daredevil brothers. When the snow hit the ground, there was nothing we wouldn’t try from pulling a card hood behind a tractor to ice skating in nearby ditches.
I will never forget this one particular winter when I was around 8 years old. We had a pond where the pigs spent their summer days. On this day the temperatures had been below zero for some time and everything was frozen solid, including the pond. So, of course, we went skating… or should I say sliding. It’s not like we actually owned a pair of ice skates. We would just hit the ice running and slid as far as we could before falling on our backside.
Well, on this day, I found an old plastic toy car Dad had bought at an auction or somewhere. It was the kind a kid would get inside of and peddle. The peddles were, of course broke, but it was great for the ice. I would get inside and my two brothers, Jack and Roger, would push me across the frozen pond.
So much fun… until they got tired of messing with me and just left me in the middle of the pond. I tried to push it myself and then jump on. That’s didn’t work too well… Yep, I landed face down on the ice. I yelled for help, but soon realized my brothers had deserted me. Once I man-aged to get up, I walked very carefully toward the edge of the pond. I was doing pretty well on my own… until I heard the ice crack… You guessed it! The bottom soon dropped from beneath me and I was gone. I can, until this day, feel that cold water in my bones. I managed to grab hold of the ice and pull my upper body up, but I could not pull myself out of the water. I remember screaming as loud as I could, but my brothers seemed to be nowhere in sight.
Then I saw a man running through the pasture… my hero was on his way to my rescue. Of course, it was my dad. He was always where I needed him to me. It wasn’t long before he had me out of the freezing water and home to my mom who quickly changed my clothes, wrapped me in a quilt, and sit me in front of the wood-burning stove. I was safe!
I could tell from the look on my dad’s face that my two brothers would not be so lucky. First of all, they should not have taken me to the pond and second they should not have left me there all alone. I was the baby girl, none of it was my fault.
Well, it might have been my fault when I returned to the pond the next day for one more slide… Of course, my parents never found out about that.
I would like to say I have grown up since those days... have become more responsible.... I would be lying. My favorite pastime these days is sledding down the levee. You should see the video from Saturday afternoon where I “crashed” and went rolling down the levee. In fact, if you want, you can check it out on the NEA Town Courier Facebook page. lol
Here’s to the child in all of us. Sandra Brand is the editor of the NEA Town Courier and The Osceola Times. She may be reached by phone at 870-763-4461 or 870-563-2615 or by email at brand@osceolatimes.com.