The day I lost my love for snow

As a kid, I loved the snow.

In Palouse we got a lot of it. When it came down, I knew it was time to get out my Flexible Flier sled. The Fliers were the sleds of all sleds.

When there was a good base, we would gather on North Hill and clear the side streets for the best sledding you could ever find. 

We would station someone, usually a parent, on each side street to divert traffic away from our hill run.

The run from the top of North Hill was about 10 blocks, with the end being in the city’s main street.

By the time the snow was packed, the run was so fast that it would bring tears to your eyes.

If we were lucky, one of the parents would show up with a pickup to take us back up to the top of the hill. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Parents would bring hot cocoa and treats and relive the days when they did the same. 

What was so remarkable about it all is that people who lived on the hill didn’t seem to mind winding their way home, staying out of the sled route.

I think that is why people from there had a good feeling about the town.

As time and age advanced, we would move on to Dill’s hill, a farm field just at the edge of town, which offered a long and steep hill for toboggan runs.

We would take corrugated roof tins, turn up the front and roll the sides, and we had a toboggan.

Even later, when the highway cuts blew full of snow, we would load up a car and see how far we could get out of town. Lots of hefty and young bodies would push us free, and we would hit the drifts again.

In the first grade, the city had so much snow that the neighbor boy had to carry me to school on his shoulders.  No bus service in town back in those days.

My feelings about snow changed when I became an adult. We were called home when my Dad passed away, in the winter time. We were in college at the time. Somewhere between Baker City and Pendleton, I slid off the road and had to get out and shovel and get the chains on.

I lost my love for snow then. And I must add, it never returned.

Since that time, I have been confronted with the need to add chains, and luckily there were people who would do it for you, for a price. The price was always right.

I guess when I became an adult and was truly confronted with what can happen when it snows, I lost my love for the stuff.

I don’t like driving in it, shoveling it, and for that matter don’t like to watch it come down.

But when I was a youngster, I loved the stuff.