The snow today brings me back to the good old days, the sixties, when we lived in a winter wonderland from November until April.  I can’t remember a winter back then when we didn’t bundle up and build snow forts and tunnels for days.  We pretended we were Eskimos making our igloos.  Our cheeks were always rosy, nearing frostbite status and the clothes we wore couldn’t compete with today’s fabrics.  We didn’t care and we didn’t notice.

We played for hours, coming in occasionally for hot chocolate or grilled cheese sandwiches and soup.  If we were lucky, we would sneak food coloring from the kitchen cabinets and make snow cones, painting the fluffy white snow crazy, primary colors.

When we came into the warm house, we started dripping immediately.  The frozen mini snowballs on our handmade woolen mittens, hats and socks quickly melted as they laid on the steam radiators.  The smell of melting snow on mittens is permanently  imprinted in my head.

When school was cancelled, it was rare!  Looking back, I am not even sure how we knew it was cancelled… It was winter and you went to school; rain, snow, sleet or hail!  (We also went to school from September until mid June…FULL DAYS!!! no teacher workshops, half days etc….but that is a whole other story!!!)   We hardly ever knew just how much snow was coming….it just came without much warning.   The storms had no names like they do today.  It was just snow!

After the roads were cleared, we went sledding.  We had two choices: aluminum flying saucers or wooden toboggans with red,white and blue cushions.  We went to the nearest big hill, often the Purpooduck Club, loading up the toboggan with as many people as we could squeeze in, and then we went flying down the hill. We trudged back up and did it all over again. We did it for HOURS!!!!  At least once a year, we went at night, under the full moon. It was magical.

Our ski weekends at Mt. Abrams and Poland Springs were far from fancy. Skis were wooden,  our leather ski boots laced up and our bindings were not step-ins!!!!  We even had rope tows in those days!  T-bars were a treat!  The lodges were “lodges”, with rustic surroundings.  Our lunches were packed at home. Peanut butter, bologna and mustard, if you were lucky. I think it cost $180 a season for a FAMILY PASS.

I just came in from shoveling.  It was fun. Each shovel full brought be back to my childhood.  Cold winters, white snow, woolen mittens, rosy cheeks….Maine winter days unadulterated with today’s distractions.

Go out today and play. Shovel. Ski. Snowshoe. Make snow angels. Make a snowman.

#lovemainewinters