(The kid on the right front
in the above title picture is me J)
Those of you who know me are
no doubt puzzled why I have titled this story about snow being beautiful. I always
have and always will absolutely detest snow. To me snow is a "four letter word". Bear
with me and I will make it abundantly clear my rationale for the seemingly
contradictory title as this story unfolds. My abhorrence of snow originated
when I was a kid, as you shall soon see.
As a kid, they had to
literally drag me out to go sledding. As a result of this, I would get very
cold, especially my feet. It didn't matter how many layers of clothes or socks
I was wearing, the degree of coldness was always the same. This is not to say,
however, that I didn't have some fun in spite of the cold. We used to go
sledding down a hill on one of the banks of Old Woman Creek on the south side
of Berlin Heights just east of the Rt 61 bridge. In those days, we had real
sleds made out of wood and steel runners. Tim had a new Comet sled he received
for Christmas in earlier years. My sled was very old but was still made of wood
and steel. I don't recall what brand it was because all the wood was dark from
age and all the writing was faded out. It may have been a Flexible Flyer, which
was common then. I thought that Tim's Comet sled was the coolest one of all of us
sledding kids. When Tim and I went sledding, we usually were accompanied by Tom
B. and identical twins Warren and Wayne K. and an assortment of other kids who
happened to be around.
In spite of my life long abhorrence
of snow, there were times that snow was indeed beautiful. These times were when
school would be closed due to snow. We never thought to watch or listen to the
next day's weather forecast. However, on snowy mornings we would listen to the
radio when the school closings were announced. In those days, they didn't
announce them in alphabetical or even county order. We had to wait with great
anticipation to hear if our school was closed due to snow that morning. We
always seemed to listen to KYW 1100 from Cleveland. Looking back in retrospect,
it never occurred to us to listen to WLEC from Sandusky, which would have
greatly shortened our anticipation to hopefully hear our school mentioned. We
would listen to all the schools mentioned that they were closed. When they
finally said, "Berlin Local School", we celebrated with unbounded
emotion. We would yell "Yippee" and jump back into bed. Later in the
morning, we would bundle up and go outside to goof around in the snow. These
times were exceptional for me. I was so happy that the school was closed, that
I never gave any thought about the cold and snow. One of the things Tim and I
did was to build caves in the inevitable big snowdrifts. We rarely if ever had
snowball fights. These were reserved for snowy days when the omnipotent
superintendent decided to not close the school on snowy days. Sometimes the
snowball fights would be somewhat dangerous. The biggest fear we had was that
some kid would throw the dreaded "ice ball" at us. These really would
sting if you happened to be hit with one of these fast moving projectiles. Some
guys would be sneaky and wrap an ice ball in a snowball. When we saw a snowball heading our
way, we didn't have too much concern. However, when we found that the center was
a dreaded ice ball, after we were hit by it, we really were ticked off at the
sneakiness of the thrower, not to mention the sting at the point of impact. I
don't recall any of us guys ever building a snowman during recess, just
snowball and ice ball fights or sliding on the ice. One of our memorable
"ice ball" casualties was a kid whose last name was "Fletcher".
At the moment, I can't recall his first name. He was only with our class for a
few years before moving away. Maybe some of you classmates can help me out
here. His older sister was Karen, which doesn't help me with his first name. He
had one bodacious bloody nose as a result of a dreaded "ice ball". Fortunately,
"ice balls" were relatively rare because they could only be created
under certain conditions. The weather had to turn warm and slush had to be
present to form the "ice ball". Of course, as young boys, none of us
had any fear of becoming an additional casualty, and we continued with our
snowball fights until the bell rang, signifying, of course, the end of recess.
One other feared action, one
which all of us younger boys tried to avoid, was having some big guy "wash"
our faces with snow. "Washing" your face in snow is described as some
kid pushing us on our backs in the snow, then grabbing a handful of loose snow
and rubbing it all over our face. The result was that our whole face would be
red and numb. Upon return to class, we could always tell who got their face
"washed". We were all glad that it was him and not us, although due
to the law of averages, we knew our time would come another day. Most face "washings"
were the result of the guys who had the "smart mouths" and tended to
provoke "big guys" from the 6th grade or higher. Although
other guys in higher grades also caused us untold misery, the 7th
and 8th graders contributed their share of terror too. As you no doubt
have concluded, I got my face "washed" quite regularly. At least
during the winter it was better to get one's face "washed" with snow
than to be beaten up in warm weather for "wising off" to some
"big" guy 6th grader or higher.
On the subject of snow and
cold, as I gaze out my patio window, I can see horizontal snowflakes being
borne along by the strong westerly wind. The wind chill is about -20 on this 10th
day of February. Hence, these conditions and my reaction are based on the
previous experience henceforth related in this massive missive. Before I have
to go out to the barn, I think I'll turn on the radio to WLEC and see if my barn
chores have been canceled due to snow. On second thought, I guess this is very
unlikely since I never bothered to install a phone in the barn. It's just as
well because the horses and cats don't know my unlisted phone number anyway,
thus they cannot contact me if they should think it is too snowy for me to come
to the barn. Alas, the chores must go on whatever the weather or date. Well,
now dear fans, I must now start bundling up for the frigid and snow bound trek
to the barn. I'm very glad that at least there are no school "big
guys" or 6th graders awaiting to throw "ice balls" at
me or "wash" my face in snow on the way to the barn. However, adults
who would like to do this to me, well, that's another matter...
