As the name of my blog indicates, I spend a lot of time thinking about home. Of course, my Heavenly Home is the one that is eternal, so that’s where I need to lay up my treasures, and that’s the one I’m striving for. But in the meantime, I have been given this tiny piece of the here-and-now—this home on the edge of town, this family, this neighborhood—in which to serve Him. And, though this is in the earthly realm, I want the things that happen here to be investments in the Heavenly realm.




Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Snow Stories


It has been a long time since all four of us spent an entire weekend here at home...no one working, no one shopping or running errands, no one socializing, no one even going to church. Winter storm Jonas offered us two and a half days to slow down. We did a little housework, drank a lot of coffee, ate too much, kept up with the laundry in case we lost power (we didn't), watched videos, cleaned out a couple of closets...and told snow stories.



On Sunday afternoon, I asked everyone to share a snow memory. 

I went first. Of course, I had to tell two because who can decide? And why tell one story when you can tell two? 

I preface mine with the fact that my parents were very protective and if they had had a clue of what we were doing, they'd have both had coronaries. They thought that the church youth were going "sledding" because that's what it was called. But the "sleds" were car hoods that were roped onto the backs of pick-up trucks! Five or six kids would pile on the upside down car hood, and then the driver would drive down a dark, winding country road while we slid around and hung on and had the time of our lives! I didn't know enough to be afraid, and my parents didn't know that the "sleds" were car hoods, and what in the world were the adults in charge thinking? As an adult, I cringe. But oh, did we ever have some fun that night!

My other memory was of a similar incident, only this time Ron and I were married, and we were on the family farm, and the car hood was tied to the back of a tractor driven by Ron's brother. And I was very newly pregnant with my firstborn. (Yikes!) There were young adult brothers and sisters and in-laws and nieces and nephews, and again, we had such fun! 

After I finished, Kati said, "Both of your stories are adventurous, Mom!" Which strikes us all as being ironic as I am truly the least adventurous person that I know. (Who was that crazy person?) 




Kati reminisced about childhood snow days when Ryan still lived at home. His good friend Josh would drive over to our house, and Ryan, Kati, and Josh...and Ryan's black Lab, Buster, who loved snow...would walk back to the woods and shake snow from tree limbs on each other's heads and throw snowballs and make snow angels while Buster tried to lick their faces. They would build a snowman if the snow was right. 

Bekah remembered a time that Sarah (who was not yet Ryan's wife) came over and she built a row of tiny snowmen on the picnic table. Sarah was also snowed in with us one time, and the power went out and we played charades by candlelight. 





Ron's snow story was the most dramatic! He told of a Christmas Eve that his family was returning home from a family Christmas party. It had begun to snow while they were at the party and several inches of fresh snow had already fallen. His father was driving slowly down the highway, when he said, "That looked like a man!" He turned the car around and went back and, sure enough, there was a man lying in the median of the highway! Dad got out of the car, telling Ron's oldest brother to come with him. Ron joined them (he was a preteen at the time) and the three of them approached the man. He was alive and so grateful that they had stopped. He had been walking to the motel across the road where he worked as a night auditor and had fallen in the snow. Being a very large man, he was unable to get up. They helped him to his feet, made sure that he was okay, and on he went to work.



What are your snow memories (dramatic or otherwise)?

13 comments:

  1. I remember one year in the 70s when we had a HUGE snow storm (school was closed for the entire week!) that had enormous snow drifts. One was so high that, as I remember it, was to the peak of our chicken house. My Poppop's front yard was one huge snow drift and my brother dug a series of tunnels through it. What seemed then to be a fun adventure now seems terrifying to me... What if the snow had collapsed on top of us?!? What I remember most, though, is my dad pulling us on sleds with his tractor through the fields and even around town! haha We lived in a really tiny town :-)

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  2. I grew up where it didn't snow. So nearly all my memories are from adulthood. A favorite is sledding with the kids and Tim on the big hill behind my parents house here in PA. Lindsay and I went together and flew down! We jumped the berm and kept going all the way down to the flower bed between my parents house and their neighbors home, in the front of the houses! Good thing it was there to stop us or we would have continued down and out into a very busy road! That was a fun ride!

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  3. Your stories and photos are lovely. Your snow appears to be more wet than our powdery one. My snow memories are not nearly as exciting as yours! We lived a the top of a hill and always had the best time sledding with all of the neighborhood children. Of course when I married and had children we always enjoyed the same. One year I was flying down the hill and hit a mailbox post. That was probably my last year sledding. I hope you are staying warm and cozy! ♥

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  4. I remember being a little girl & we had a HUGE snowstorm! I probably wasn't 5 yet... the snow was as tall as me! When we finally dug out enough to get outside, we went across the property to visit my Nana... my Mom and sister had me in between them, and for every step they'd hoist me up over the snow, and then drop me back in it again! I remember thinking it was grand fun... but I bet their arms were sore by the time we got to Nana's! :-D

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  5. I loved your snow stories! Oh yes, my kids too would have a field day with some of my old stories considering who I am today, lol. Growing up in California the only snow stories I had were from my childhood when we owned a mountain in Big Bear and went up nearly every week-end to play in the snow during the winter months. We often spent the week between Christmas and New Years there too. I remember the novelty of one night my parents turned the search lights on bright and we all sled down our road [pretty good hill] in the dark WHILE it was snowing, though somehow the moon was shinning brightly too. One of the funnest things I ever did. But the thing I remember the most was my mom and dad and the joy on THEIR faces and how happy they were. Their marriage was a difficult one and good moments like those were not the norm. I'll always remember it! Thanks for the walk down memory lane for me...Enjoy your day!

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  6. Oh man, I can see you all on that car hood slipping and sliding away. Reminds me of river rafting which I haven't done either. I'm glad Ron's dad saw that man who had fallen. Moving to Washington state from southern California has afforded us a few snow events and adventures. The worst snow/ice story I have is on a Thanksgiving weekend we drove to Leavenworth which is a town in the Cascade Mountain range. We were in a Toyota van with rear wheel drive and we hit black ice and flew off the highway onto the top of a tree which stopped us from going further down a ravine. Our boys were in a different car and that car saw us fly. We had 2 of our friends' girls in our car and my brother and his wife who was on oxygen because of her cystic fibrosis. Thankfully we were able to get out of the van and climb up to the road and then the car got towed up to the road. We stopped at a gas station and the car was able to make it home with some minor tweaks. The only injuries were bruises from the seat belts!

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  7. Aww snow days - my favourite! We have quite a few of those over here and I love nothing more than being snowed in with the wood stove glowing and staying in my Pjs all day long! I used to be more adventurous and thought I just have to get to work (once our lane way was cleared) but of late I realize it just isn't worth the risk - especially after ditching the car on several occasions. I recall a very stormy New Year's Eve when a group of youth were "storm stayed" for several days at a friends home - we had such fun!

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  8. What adventurous stories! We dont get too much snow in England, but I do remember back in the 60s in a very bad Winter, pulling my two little ones down to the shop on their toy sledge and back again. It was the only way that day!

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  9. Fun stories all! It might be very hard for you to tell your adventurous stories in front of your parents, since they had no idea. My stories are very similar to your stories. I do remember one year when my parents made a huge snowman with us on the front lawn. He was so much better than anything we could have made alone.

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  10. Oh these are great, Cheryl...and I thought that car hood thing was something done only in the south...we call it redneck skiing! When my son was a teen, he and his friend tied the car hood onto the back of a golf cart and was sledding/skiing on top of grass in the summertime! I have several good snow stories but one that I particularly remember is when I was little, we had huge drifts that built up behind our house and for a couple of days, my sister and I worked on carving out an igloo-like structure, lined it with newspapers and it was a great little snow fort. I was amazed how warm it actually was inside! This was fun post but it would have made me feel a little better if you left out the part where you said you did a little housework and cleaned out a couple of closets! LOL

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  11. I have never heard the car hood thing before.. sounds wild! Oh the things we did when we were young. A friend's kids were pulled around on kayaks by their dad's AT vehicle (on a farm). Similar to your story, just updated. LOL. I have lots of snow memories from growing up near Chicago. It seems there was snow on the ground the entire winter. I enjoyed your stories!

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  12. What fun to tell snow stories!!! I totally identify with being less adventurous now than you were then. I rode motorcycle through the jungles of Bolivia, went alligator hunting with a 12 gauge shotgun, etc. All that ended when I had our first child and felt such an awesome responsibility as a parent. But those days of crazy sledding were so much fun, weren't they, and I don't remember ever worrying about it being dangerous. xo

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  13. Cheryl, can't believe you did that! I've never even heard of such a thing! If my mother had ever learned her kids were doing that, you could have heard her screams from five or six states away! :D

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