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Memoir: Skating Up and Down

Spring Creek wound its way through the 1440 acres of the ranch where I grew up in the 1920s and 30s. That creek gave our ranch its name -Spring Creek Farm. Many fond memories come to my mind about the fun my brothers and sisters and I experienced there growing up. The best ones are the memories of all the winter fun we had.

Winters in South Dakota often got very cold, and when the creek froze over, we kids dug out our skates, the old-fashioned kind that we just clamped onto our high-top shoes. We carried them with us to the creek; first we put on warm coats and stocking camps and mittens. When we got there, we sat down and fastened the skates securely onto our shoes. Then we started up the creek, following the curves and hopping from one little patch of ice to the other. By the time we reached the northern most part of our pasture, we ran into a fence and turned around to skate back to the house. We had great fun on that little narrow creek, a great part of our winter fun.

My brothers and sisters and I spent many hours every winter exploring the creek. In the process we often crashed and fell while learning to skate. When we found a large space of ice we would stop and go back and forth over and over until we conquered staying on our feet. We often got back to the house cold and tired but we enjoyed our winter fun.

Besides skating, we also played with our sleds, carrying them up the hill west of the house, and taking turns sliding down the hill. We had contests to see who could make the sled travel the farthest. We made snowmen and played a game in the snow called Fox and Geese, where we had to make a big circle in the snow and cut paths in the circle to resemble a pie. But when I think of winter fun as kids growing up, I like to remember those days on the creek when we worked so hard at play, chasing each other up and down Spring Creek. When we got back to the house, Mama made hot chocolate for us. What a wonderful feeling that was to experience the fun of the skating and then the cozy warm-up afterward.

The End

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