WINTER FUN

CHRISTMAS CARD AT THE LAKES

 SNOW EQUIPMENT-SHOVELS AND MUSCLES

WINTER FUN

BY R. AUBREY LA FOY

Growing up during the depression days was not all that bad. We could always find something to occupy our time and we didn’t have diversions such as TV, computer games, I-pods, etc. We had to invent our own pleasures.

Snow is made for kids. Adults have a difficult time managing the stuff because it stops traffic, clogs up roads, driveways, sidewalks and after a huge deposit where do you put it? Kids on the other hand see snow as God’s gift for playing. In those days adults had their own problems and did little to find something for us to occupy our time. In those kids should be seen, but not heard. I tried to think of the many activities we indulged in during the winter using snow as our prop.

Kids in those days could find a place to play that under ordinary times would not be utilized. This opportune place was only one block north of our home. Sometime earlier a basement had been dug but that was the end of the operation. We discovered that it was a wonderful place to go sledding.

The community I grew up in (Milford) is elevated from the surrounding land. It was bordered on two sides by Mill Creek on the south and east and West Okoboji was 1 ½ mile north. Continuing west (2 ½ miles) of town the land drops slopes towards the Little Sioux River. On the east side of town were a series of hills that descend towards Mill Creek. Milford had built right up to the edge of those slopes and that is where we discovered a wonderful place to go sledding. It was called Kesey’s Hill. Just to the south of the Kesey house and barn was a very open field that stretched quite a ways south and a very steep hill that ended in Mill Creek. In the winter many Saturdays found Kesey’s Hill filled with kids sliding down towards Mill Creek. There was neither a warming house nor rope machine to pull us back up the hill after a wonderful and exciting slide down the hill. We would get to the bottom, turn around and trudge back up the hill to turn around and away we went. We raced each other and tried to see how far towards Mill Creek on our sleds we could go. Some of the sleds were great and looked pretty slick but no matter because the runners were metal and one could even somewhat steer the sled because it had a handle that extended across the front of the sled for you to grab. Attached to holes in the handles was a looped rope that after you slid down the hill you could pull the sled back up. Some of the kids used flattened cardboard boxes and thinking back don’t know if they did that for lack of owning a sled or for the novelty.

We would get all bundled up at home wearing our sheepskin coats, aviator caps with the goggles, three and four buckle overshoes, scarf and wool mittens. We always had plenty of wool mittens as my grandmother, Georgia Holcomb, knitted them for us. Two pair would keep your hands warm until they would get so wet and heavy that your hands would turn red. We pulled our sleds over to Kesey’s Hill which was about seven blocks from our house. We didn’t have cell phones or a way to communicate with our folks and if they were worried about us we never heard it. We would play and slide until we would get so cold and wet it was a necessary to pull our sleds back home, take off the wet clothes and then stand over our floor heat registers and warm up. I don’t recall ever getting frost bitten but we sure had rosy cheeks and were tired. That night we didn’t have to be told to go to bed, we went.

Another place that we went sliding was only one block north of our home. I don’t know when the basement was dug nor why it was not completed but it gave the neighborhood kids a wonderful place to slide. Digging basements in those days was accomplished with a team of horses hitched to a large hand scoop bucket. The bucket was a scoop with two handles and the worker would dig into the dirt and the horses would pull it up out of the excavated hole when the worker thought it was at the correct place, would push the handles up and dump the load. This operation continued and the hole would go deeper and the dirt would be piled up on the north end and form a hill. The site was abandoned but that little hill and coasting down into the hole or basement created a miniature sledding area for kids. I don’t recall having any disagreements or fights as we took our turn, sliding down the hill, turning around and pulling the sleds back up to the top of the mound, pick up the sled, get a running start, slam it down and  away we went. My sister and I had an advantage because that little hill was near our LaFoy grandparent’s house so we could go over there and warm up when we got cold. We naturally included our buddies but we were always welcomed. We even created some jumps to go over and many a Saturday afternoon was spent at the location. But Kesey’s Hill was a lot more exciting and challenging.

One Christmas Santa Claus brought me a pair of skies. The skies were pretty elementary and you had a strap on each ski to put your foot in. No binders and really no way to turn the skis. I got two sticks for poles and it was exciting to push off from the top of the hill and go down, down, down with wind rushing past your face and even passing up the kids on the sleds. But again after getting to the bottom, we would jump-off the skies and trudge back up the hill. Falling down often was the norm in those days but one of my falls sort of bent my shoulder as I fell on a rock buried under the snow. In those days we took our lumps and seldom told our parents. I often thought of those early skis when we began with our boys.  Rope tows and ski lifts made it a lot more fun and tripled the skiing time. Sometimes we would take our ice skates along when we went to Kesey’s Hill, slide down, put on our ice skates and glide up and down frozen Mill Creek.

Today, Kesey’s Hill as we knew it as kids, no longer exists. It became the victim of modern progress being that sand was more valuable than a hill for kids to slide on. Thinking back it would be hard to estimate how many kids used Kesey’s Hill on any given Saturday, in the depression years, but there were probably 50 to 100 kids. We took turns, helped each other, raced and had a wonderful time. The price was right as it was FREE.  Wet mittens and jeans was the order of the day and after playing there for hours the tramp home loomed in the future. Many times we stayed until it was so dark that we were afraid somebody would run into us as we plodded back up the hill after an exhilarating slide down Kessey’s Hill.  

There was always something to do in those days and we had little to no adult supervision or interference in our playing in and with snow. How about a Fox and Goose game after lying out the pattern in some newly fallen snow? You’re IT.

LOOK AT THE ICE AND SNOW

SNOW BOUND TRAIN SOUTH OF TERRIL-1936

ICE TOOLS AT MARITIME MUSEUM

When our boys (Randy-Ray-Carl) were growing up we came to the lakes from Mason City most weekends. During the winter we had two snowmobiles and two iceboats which provided plenty of entertainment. We loved to go around the lakes but, for me, ice boating was the ultimate. There was no other joy so dear to me to get your ice boat up on two runners and go. An ice boat will go three times the sped of the wind -so a 20 mph wind will let you travel 60 mph. Many winters we ice boated all winter and others only a day or so. I built the boats from kits in our basement in Mason City and carried them on the roof of our station wagon between Clear Lake and Okoboji.  Our son, Randy,still has one of our original ice boats at White Bear Lake in MN. He keeps me informed if he gets to go. Winter was fun but, alas warm Arizona appeals to us more as we grow older. Have a great Winter!!!