Christmas Past and Heavenly Snow

 A lofty snow came early to Arkansas, mid December, as we lay dreaming in our beds. We yawned, looked out the window, and saw 10-inches of snow-covered ice.

I love waking up to snow that wasn't there when I went to bed. In Arkansas, we dream of a white Christmas with fingers crossed, so I am always ecstatic when snow graces our lives before Dec. 25th.
Snowbound and off school, the grandchildren went sledding and built snowmen and ginger bread houses.

However, we were as happy to see the snow melt as to see it fall. Cabin fever hits within days of being trapped in the house, whether you're building ginger bread houses or not.

We're known as ridge-runners in the Ozarks because our country roads follow the mountain ridges and veer up and down and sideways at 45-degree angles. When the roads are ice or snow covered, it means tough sledding in an auto and we end up in ditches or snowbound for days.

Within the last 10 years or so, giant Caterpillar road equipment has leveled somewhat the mountain passes and constructed beautiful, four-lane highways. We now drive through the mountain ridges rather than around them, leaving the nickname ridge-runners in the rear view mirror. Nevertheless, the mountainous highways are still formidable when it snows.

During my childhood in Wisconsin, there was never a doubt as to whether we would have snow on Christmas but rather how much and how deep and whether the snow would be good packing snow for snow men or dry snow for sledding.

I don't remember being snowbound in Wisconsin. We just strapped snow chains on our tires and were ready to go. We built snowmen and snow slides and skated down the creeks and through ponds. We built igloos and snow forts; played duck-duck-goose in the snow and fell over backwards in knee deep snow to make snow angels. We had boots, mittens, scarves, ear muffs and long johns, all those things you don't need for Arkansas winters.

During my childhood in  Badger, Wis., the city elders flooded the fields next to our town hall building and made a huge skating pond for Badger's 300 or so residents. I skated daily.

I was so enamored with ice skating as a child that I dreampt of becoming a professional ice skater. My idol, Sonja Henning. I practiced my twirls and swan dives and when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to be a figure skater.

My dad and uncles went ice fishing, driving their truck on top of frozen lakes - cutting holes through the ice and popping up their ice fishing gear. Officially, my dad's profession was listed as an ice man on my baby brother David's birth certificate.

Yes, Dad was an ice man in Randolph, Wis., because back in the 40s in rural Wisconsin, we had ice boxes and not refrigerators. Those were the days ....

Christmas in Badger, Wisc.: David with his Hopalong Cassidy doll, John with his guns and holsters, ready for a cross-handed quick draw, Jeannette, left,  in her cashmere sweater, and me in a newly coiffed hairdo for Christmas, thanks to the neighborhood barber. The little beaded moccasin pin I'm wearing was always one of my favorite things and a gift from my parents. The moccasins and pillow were made of red, white, and black beads by the Indians at nearby Wisconsin Dells.