Winter-Time Activities

As I sit bundled in my living room, eating my bowl of hot beef stew for lunch, my mind wanders back to my childhood. I wonder if it was any colder then than it is in these later years.  I don't have an answer for that question, but I do know that the cold didn't seem to bother me then the way it does these days.

We kids walked to school from our house, nearly every day, despite the weather. (No, this is not where I'll give some exaggerated tale of walking five miles each way through pelting ice storms and waist tall snow.)  We lived less that two miles from the school, so we weren't eligible to be bus riders.  There were days that were windy and cold, where my lips cracked and any exposed skin was chapped and raw. There a couple of times that I remember when the snow had climbed to thigh-high, and those walks weren't really pleasant, but those were few.

However, on normal winter days,  there might be cold air and maybe a snowfall, and we'd don our warm duds and our boots, and out the door we'd go....by choice rather than force.  The snow awaited creation! There were snow people to birth, forts to construct, a friendly snow ball fight to join in, and maybe even an igloo to attempt to build.  

Sledding was another option. We'd drag our sleds over to the Mott kids home a few streets away, where we'd spend much of the day climbing and sliding down the long hill in their back yard.   Other times we'd be driven to Amagansett to 'the Apple Orchard' where the steep hill was, and half of the towns kids were, as well.

When there was no snowfall, there was often ice on the town ponds.   Sometimes we'd pile into the car with half the neighborhood gang, and head over to the Two Holes of Water. It could be some ragged ice over there, being a natural body of water, with branches that might spike through the ice, or where the wind had blown the water as it was freezing, making it a rather rough experience. I recall seeing through the clear ice in spots, and seeing large coy beneath the ice.  Those goldfish would survive from year to year, growing as they passed through the seasons.

Most of the time, we'd be skating on Town Pond, at the entrance of East Hampton Village.  The volunteer fire department would flood the pond when there was a promise of days of deep freeze ahead. That would give the ice a smooth finish, so long as eager skaters stayed off it until it was 
'ready'.   The boys would gather at the north end of the oval shaped pond for a game of ice hockey, while the rest of us congregated in the center or the south end for skating.  We girls practiced our spins, possibly having our favorite figure skater image in mind. We were wearing our short cordoroy or felt circle skirts and tights, our striped scarves of school colors (some had built-in hoods) and our warm sweaters. The laces of our skates sported tennis ball sized puffs of colored fur, and bells.  It's not that the outfits helped us to skate any better, but we 'had' to have the gear for the games!

These days there's no skating for me. I'm too old and would return with a broken hip,no doubt!  Should there be any snow, I 'might'' do some sledding, but the last time I did that was more than ten years ago on Pierson High School's hill...using a garbage bag for a sled. Take it from me, it wrecks your back to use such a thing!  On second thought, I think I'll just stay bundled, here in my living room, and leave the activities to those in the younger bunch!  Have fun, Kids!