Do you have winter fun – sledding, tobogganing, ice skating, even skiing? Maybe now it’s a vicarious experience with kids or grandkids. I wrote about it last year in another post. Since then, I’ve paged through albums to find photos of our Floridian family having fun in the ice and snow.
For author Patricia Hampl, The Florist’s Daughter, winter fun was ice skating:
In winter, skating was even better, the whole body thrown into orbit. Ice-skating was my sport, the only athletic passion of my piano-playing, book-reading, indoor girlhood: A northern pleasure, a cold-weather art form (129).
SKATING
Grandson Ian wobbly at first on cold ice on a warm day in St. Augustine, Florida. Outside temperature was almost 70 degrees, the ice got slushy, maybe a good thing for beginners.
SKIING Gliding, sliding down a hill, that’s what skiing is under the best possible circumstances.
SNOWFLAKES
Do you remember cutting out paper snowflakes like this?
For detailed instructions with a video, click here.
Snowflakes make Emily Dickinson want to dance a jig, so she says!
I counted till they danced so
Their slippers leaped the town,
And then I took a pencil
To note the rebels down.
And then they grew so jolly
I did resign the prig,
And ten of my once stately toes
Are marshalled for a jig!
Plain and Fancy 
Good morning, Marian! My idea of winter fun is being inside with warm drinks, food, and books! 🙂 I went ice skating once in my life, and I’ve never skied.
I enjoyed seeing your photos though (I love the one of your grandson all wobbly on his skates), and I like the Emily Dickinson.
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At this stage of my life, my idea of winter fun matches yours. Readers, here is a link to Merril’s recent post about the blizzard that wasn’t (in New Jersey) and the indoor fun she invented: https://merrildsmith.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/the-snowstorm-that-wasnt-and-was-or-making-your-garden-grow/
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Thanks, Marian!
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Oh! This pulls up my Florida snow memory. The year I lived over in Blountstown as a senior in high school, my father still had a lot of business leading to his travelling back up to Indiana with his pick up. On one trip, Indiana had major snow, and to weigh down the backend of the pickup, he loaded it with snow. Well, that snow made it all the way to Florida, so when he got home, he asked my brother and I if we wanted to build a snowman. We lived 8 miles out in the country back a long lane, who would see it there? Being adventurous, Dad suggested we take it to town and build our snowman in front of the school. It was the most fun snow man we ever made–at night–knowing what a surprise it would be for the kids the next day. That snow man made it into the school yearbook that year. I might have to share that story & photo on my blog sometime. It ended up being kind of chunks of ice we patched together with edges of softer snow to make it hand together. The ice man cometh.
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Brilliant Dad, that man! And it does sound like blog material maybe with a quote from Eugene O’Neill although as I recall there is lots of mayhem in the play and very little snowman making. Thanks for telling your charming story here, Melodie.
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Growing up in Chicago we had great winters with a lot of snow. We spent hours outside playing in the snow having snowball fights building igloos or so we thought getting buried in snow. Then in Pennsylvania tobogganing, sledding and skiing at Mountain Round Top. I still love the snow. We’ve had very little this year so the kids haven’t been able to play Sunday. We’re supposed to get 3 inches and the kids are looking forward to play in the snow. Great memories. Nice pictures.
Gloria
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May the snow wishes come true for the kids’ sake. In Chicago it’s more likely this weekend than in PA. At the moment, I’m trying to find snow boots for a trip to Virginia, but so far not having much luck. I’m sure you could help me out, Gloria – ha!
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Today is a cold day, 19 F. A good day to think of the fun of tobogganing with our children when they were young. We had our own toboggan, with a pad. We lived near the City Forrest where there was a set of great toboggan runs! It was a cold, screaming, good time! Afterwards hot chocolate warmed us up.
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There is the brutal cold of winter, but there is the fun side which you emphasize here, a “screaming, good time” indeed. And the contrasts: Icy winds outside and hot chocolate warming our throats inside. Everybody has a winter memory. Thanks for sharing yours, Anita.
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Brings back wonderful memories of my days skiing Lake Tahoe. Living in Sacramento at the time, we used to go all the time in the winter for years. It is one of my favorite places. Snow flakes too, as we used to make them as children all the time. Thanks for sharing.
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No one thinks of California as a place for skiing, but it surely is – the photo here taken on the California side of Lake Tahoe. I wonder if you have photos too of skiing there.
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It snowed 13 inches in my little town of Pine Mountain GA in 1974 or 5. I was at my Grandma’s and I made a snowman for the first time in my life. My cousin put it atop her VW bug and we rode it all around town. I would love for my grandkids to see snow when they are a little older.
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Just like you, your cousin likes the theatrical. After all, snow in Georgia is rare and 13 inches, spectacular. You’d enjoy Melodie Miller’s anecdote of drama-with-snow in her posting below.
In our family, two Floridians made a huge snow bunny with a bow tie, and then called the Elizabethtown Chronicle who published the photo.
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Marian — Oh what fun to see those smiling faces in the photos you shared. Clearly, everyone is having a blast!
I do, indeed, remember cutting out paper snowflakes. After living in the greater Chicagoland area for 20+ years and then recently relocating to a much more moderate climate, my perspective is that the paper type of snow is the best kind! We’re elated that the 7+ feet of snow we shoveled last winter is now a distant memory in the rearview mirror.
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I vividly remember photos of you and Len driving in tandem (and in the RAIN) to Boise. Last January we enjoyed playing in the snow at Silver Mountain in your fine state. Ice wasn’t nice under the snow there which torpedoed skiing plans though.
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Marian … The beautiful photo I posted on Facebook of a child sledding down a hill in Boston is about as close as I want to get to that frigid, wintry blast of weather. I haven’t tried ice skating in Florida. It looks like fun and like something I could handle. 😉
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Ah, I understand. Ice skating in Florida sounds tempting, but the slushiness of ice at 70-degree temps made it slow going, great for beginners, but not for the rest of us. 😉
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It’s a winter wonderland here most years so I have done plenty of skating, sledding, snowpeople building, snow fort constructing and snowball throwing. I have cross country skied bit never downhill. We have a pretty large pond on the property which is great for skating. We (my siblings,cousins, our friends…whomever was around) could stay out for hours. We used to build a little bonfire near by and bring along hot dogs to roast and a thermos of cocoa, warm up and skate some more.
Despite how good our pond was I loved to stay in town on a Friday night with my friend Marlenie and go to the skating rink at the public grade school near her house. They had lines of lights strung up so you could skate at night and a warming hut with a wood burning pot-bellied stove where we could dry our wet woolen mittens.
The pond is well used every winter. I haven’t skated for years but my husband will still get out there and play hockey with the boys. There were plenty of skating parties over the years and through the generations and there will be many more to come.
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You’re right about the winter wonderland you have experiencing. Most appealing to me: “lines of lights strung up so you could skate at night and a warming hut with a wood burning pot-bellied stove.” There was a pond across the railroad bridge and through the woods where we skated our hearts out Sunday afternoons. Loved it all!
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What fun everyone is having. I adore the poet Emily Dickinson and the snow flakes I’m up for making some of those.
We have been cheated this year,hardly a snow flake. We have had the icy cold winds but not the snow . Never mind, it’s fun to watch everyone else enjoying it.
I adore lone walking in the snow. I get up really early and wrap up in more wool that a Woolworth counter, then before the world and his wife have woke, step out into white world of freedom. Then on my walk I watch as the lights from nearby houses glow into life and the earlies like me, gather their newspapers, hear the warm comment on the way from dog walkers etc …this weather always brings the best out of us and shows the child still in us …love it . Enjoy yours Marian.
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You haven’t lost your sense of wonder, Cherry. With all the walking in the quiet morning solitude, you get your day off to a great start. Thanks for giving us a peek into your winter morning routine.
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From the plane in Atlanta. No snow in sight!
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From Atlanta to snow country – soon!
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What fun shots. I love being out in the snow with the sun shining.
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The sun shines like a prism making reflections in the snow – or some such delightful thing!
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I hate being in the cold now but used to cross-country ski, skate on the pond and toboggan on the hill at the farm. I took figure skating lessons for years (the closest I could get to dance in a small town) but my dreams of Olympic gold will never be realized! lol
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Who needs Olympic gold if you have images of dancing on silvery skates and tobogganing on glittering snow.
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Love the paper snowflakes. I remember making those. We had a little snow yesterday and I spent the morning marching through it trying to see how it transformed my favourite places. It was gone by midday though.
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Sometimes your words sound like poetry to me. Your comment today is a case in point. Keep marching, Marie!
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Thank you 🙂
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