Hurry Up!

This story I do not recall first hand. It was one of several stories Mom and Dad told often.

It appears that one Christmas Eve in the late 1930's a young boy was reluctant to go to bed. At that time there was living in the household a Mother, a Father, the young boy, a younger sister and a hired man. The young boy had been told that he had to be in bed before Santa would show up but apparently that was not overcoming his reluctance to get on with it.

All of a sudden there arose such a clatter, the sound of sleigh bells on the porch and the young boy was out of his tub and into bed as quick as a wink. He was still wet but he was in bed!

The hired man had snuck out of the house, gone to the barn, got a set of bells from the horse's harness and rung it right outside the window.

I do not know that the effect was long lasting.

Snow Banks

I don’t think it is just that things seemed bigger when we were children. I am very sure that we got more snow in those years. By mid winter the snow ploughs on the highways would have created such large banks that they would have to use “wings” in order to push back the tops of the banks so that there was room to push more snow from the next storm. The ledge created by the wings created wonderful new highways for children to walk on. Being maybe 30 inches above ground level they were often difficult to reach – but what an adventure. We were walking on top of the world on paths never before trod by man! Top that Star Trek! The illusion was that we were higher than the telephone wires – and we were – mind you the wires were on the top of fairly tall posts but they were down in the ditch - so we could see over them.These new paths were wonders but they were hard gained wonders. They would last only until the next interruption along the highway – a creek or a driveway where we would have to slide down to ground level walk, a few yards, then fight our way back up to the heights.

Strawberries

Somehow I seemed to be able to do this alone. At one particular spot along the side road there was a little spot of wild strawberries. They were exceptional for wild strawberries. They were larger than normal and sweeter than normal – and for some reason there was little grass growing there so they were easy to find.

My Yearly Sunburn

I was born fortunate to have a dark complexion that did not burn easily. I am still like that. But each spring I would get a sunburn. During the winter I wore shirts with collars. At some point each spring – and I do not know the trigger – Mom would change me over to a t-shirt. The next day I would have a sunburn. As I walked the mile and a quarter westward to school in the morning and eastward in the evening the sun would beat on the newly exposed skin. I think it was only in my eighth year of school that I realized what was happening.

Dawdling

At one point there were three boys with bicycles who would travel the side road together. Or at least they would start together. Two were a little older than other and closer together in age. We had lots of time to get home before supper and in the spring there were few chores to get home to. Bicycles are good transportation but they are good for other things as well. If there is a puddle on a road the rear wheel can be used to send a plume of water streaking down the road – and sometimes someone would be in the way – oops!

Bicycles are good for leaning or sitting on when you are just talking. A railroad crossed the side road about half way home. It was at the top of a little incline – but if we were in no hurry it was a good excuse to stop and “rest.” The elders would get talking but the younger would get bored with the conversation or just disgusted with our pace and pick up and leave us behind.

The Shortcut

About half way home our travels took us to within 1/8 mile of my uncle’s sugar bush. On hot summer days the idea of a shortcut through the cool bush was very enticing so we would cut along the neighbours fence line and up into the bush.

Somehow one thing would lead to another and the shortcut always seemed to take at least 30 minutes longer than staying on the road.

The Fountain

A mile and a half can be a long way to walk to school or to ride a bike. Part way along there was a place where a culvert crossed the road to let water flow under the road and into the creek. Water flowed through the culvert quite a bit of the time. The redeeming feature was that the water had to fall quite a few inches down to the creek. On the creek bank there was a spot that was just the right place to stand to get a drink.

Only years later did it dawn on me that the water I was drinking had just made its way across the farmer’s barnyard.