Winter Memories

After shoveling the fresh 6 1/2 inches of snow today, Trent asked me, "When is winter going to end and how much more snow are we going to get?"

I replied, "We are just in the first part of winter. We have a long ways to go."

I thought back to when our children were young. Snow covered the ground from Thanksgiving Day until the end of March. Our daughter went ice skating every time she had a chance. There was an area right next to her school that the park district flooded with water and it would freeze--and actually stay frozen the whole winter.

Don and I took our children every winter to the toboggan slides at Swallow Cliff (Palos Park). What a ride! I remember that feeling of fear as as we quickly approached the first drop. I hugged one of my children close to me. The ride was over in seconds! Then there was the walk back up--120 stairs to be exact--to experience the thrill all over again. Needless to say, we didn't go down the slide too many times--the trip back up was difficult--especially with little ones to carry in our arms.

Then the climate changed and our winters became milder. No more outdoor ice skating. It was just too warm. There wasn't enough snow to go tobogganing, or when we did get snow, the warm weather soon melted it. The toboggan slides at Swallow Cliff were no longer open. Eventually the wood slides rotted and cement ones were built. Just a few years ago those were torn down from lack of use. We were all convinced that global warming had changed everything.

I wish those slides were still in use. I would have loved to take our grandchildren there to enjoy something that their parents enjoyed when they were kids. But I'm afraid that Don and I would need an escalator now!