Winter in Wheeling

The snowflakes in Wheeling when I grew up on Poplar Ave were special.  The flakes were huge, and drifted slowly from the sky and landed gently in quickly growing piles.  In North Dakota where I have been since 1976 the snow never falls straight down, and big flakes are rare.  As a young person in Woodsdale you could stand under the streetlight and catch a flake in your mouth. Then came the next day and the excitement as you turned on the radio with the hope school was cancelled.  Arrangements had already been made with some of the rich widows in the area to shovel their walks in the event of snow.  So that was the first thing that had to be done.  Knocking on the door when the job was finished and having a five dollar bill placed in you hand was like winning the lottery.

Now a day away from the wardens at Woodsdale school.  If only we could get our sleds to the big hill at Olglebay Park.  Sometimes in the most idiotic and dangerous manner we did get the with the help of my father.  He would pull us on sleds in a train.  For hours we would sled ride until completely worn out.  Some would get an old tractor inner tube and put five or six people on it.  Once when this contraption went into the pines down towards the swimming pool some serious injuries resulted.

Back in the neighborhood we could throw snowballs at cars,  and run from the angry drivers.  Piles of snow could be heaped up in my grandfathers yard, then the inside of the igloo was excavated.  A good place to smoke a cigar stolen from the drugstore.

You could walk up and down the frozen creek and sometimes step through the ice.  At first the only place to ski was on the golf course where a rudimentary rope tow run by a tractor pulled the skiers up the hill.  When the ski slope opened at the driving range it was big time.  At first it included a pathetic rope tow, then finally the palm a lift was installed.  Many days after school we slide down that hill on what we thought was a ski slope.  It was actually an ice covered hill with a slight resemblance to real skiing.

One night a friend challenged me to jump from one of the golf tees covered with snow.  I explained to him it would surely be fatal because if you fell you would hit a tree.  My solution was for him to go first.  He jumped and successfully landed unhurt so I took the challenge.  My prediction came true,  I fell and hit the tree.  Both wooden skis were broken and it felt like my legs were also.  In extreme pain the feeling finally returned to my legs. They were not broken, but sure felt that way.

As we grew older and got stupider we ended up with drivers licenses.  Teenages with snow and cars to mix are a combination that cannot turn out well.  So cousin Mark came along with his mom’s station wagon and it was time to go to the parking lot at Wheeling Park and do some spins in the snow.  When it came to dropping me off at home my cousin said “ Watch this” .  After his declaration he attempted to put the car in a spin right in front of my house.  The car skidded into a tree across the street with some significant damage.  I got out laughing so hard it was difficult to keep from peeing my pants.  My cousin was enraged, and his mother was not too happy.  Every since that day I know nothing good comes after someone declares “ Watch this”.