Old time Christmas fun
Of course we didn’t get iPhones, Nooks or Android tablets for Christmas. We got hand-knit woolen mittens, or scarves and caps that kept us warm while we played outdoors.
If we’re going to live in north country, where winters are snowy and cold, we thought nothing of participating in outdoor play.
In 1927, Norman and Dean Cooke loved to ride their “74” Harley, but they were frustrated when winter came and riding through the snow presented a challenge. So they rigged the bike with a runner and then they could ride through the snow. Of course that was quite a phenomenon in Whitefish.
We didn’t have a motorcycle to rig up for snow riding, but the year that my little sis’ and I got a sled, we soon found out that it didn’t work well with the powder snow. Instead of sliding quickly down the hill, it would sink deep in the snow and refuse to budge. So the sled was used mostly by dad to haul sacks of feed from the car to the barn.
Much better than the sled was a toboggan. One Christmas the neighborhood boys got a toboggan, large enough for five of us to ride. From then on, our main winter activity was tobogganing down a neighbor’s hill with three neighbor boys.
Finally, just going down hill became too boring for them, so they shoveled the snow to make a jump. The first time down we failed to aim the toboggan and just let it fly, almost hitting the barn at the bottom. With my little sister and me in front of the three boys, hitting the barn could have been disastrous. From then on we made sure that it was aimed away from the barn.
After several hours playing outdoors, one of their mothers invited us for chili supper. What a delicious way to end a perfect day.
Another day, Dad had asked me to go to a neighbor and borrow their wire stretcher to use for his fencing.
When I got to their house, their daughter, Gerry, who was about my age, showed me her new skis that she had got for Christmas. Of course I had to try them and hadn’t gone far when I fell, ramming my hands in the snow to stop. The snow was hard packed and my left arm hurt something terrible, so I went right home.
After supper my arm had started to swell and hurt even more. Finally Mom noticed that something was wrong with me and when I told them about the fall, my dad was really put out that I hadn’t told them while doctor Simons was still in his office. We had to go to his house, which we called the castle, to get him.
Yes, the x-ray showed a broken wrist and he cast it and told me when to come back to have the cast removed. My accident happened long before it was chic to let friends write on the cast.
Most winter days, if it wasn’t a school day, we’d be outdoors with the neighbor kids skiing, or hiking through the woods when the snow wasn’t too deep.
The cold wasn’t bad, only insufficient clothing was bad.