Winter Fun in the 1940s and 50s (Republished)

This article is a continuation of my own memoirs and tells about  what I experienced for activites during the winter in the 1950s.

Winter Activities When I Was Growing Up.

The cold weather we are having now in Iowa reminds me a lot of when I was growing up. We don’t seem to have nearly as much snow now as we did then. It didn’t use to be considered a big snowstorm until we received over 10 inches of snow, but now 5 or 6 inches will cancel the schools and many other activities. When I was a child the towns plowed the streets but didn’t haul away snow. There would be huge mountains of snow at many corners. All the better for us kids to play on. We made caves in them and used them for snow forts. In those days when we had a day off school due to the weather, it didn’t really keep the children indoors. We all had warm winter clothing and were outside playing as long as the temperatures would allow us to stay. Then it would be a trip inside to warm up and dry our mittens on the stove. Most people in those days didn’t have central heat, but used wood or oil stoves to heat homes.

If the weather was bad enough that we couldn’t go outdoors we would play games inside, which I will describe in another section of my story. We made good use of our card games, tinker toys, Lincoln Logs, and paper dolls. When our clothes were dried out we were right back outside to play.

We loved making snow forts and having snow ball fights. There were usually teams chosen for the fights, or maybe we just sided with out best friends on that given day. Occasionally someone would go home crying but for the most part we didn’t seem to mind the snow in our faces or down our necks. If we had a good wet snow we would build a new fort. It would take us all day to construct it. We were always sure it was the best snow fort we had ever made. Once we decided to make a stockpile of snowballs so that we would be ready for the next day. Someone smashed them all overnight so we had to start afresh.

Another favorite activity was sliding on the ice pond at the grade school. Each winter the town’s fire department would flood a low place on the school grounds and we used it for our ice rink. Often someone would get on it with skates or sleds and rough it up before it was completely frozen. It was only about 4 inches in depth so would freeze overnight in our coldest days. When it snowed it didn’t always get cleared. Then different kids would take a snow shovel to the ice and clear a long path to slide on. Often different ages of children had specific slides at the ice rink. It was used at every recess as well as on week-end. Run and slide, then run back again and repeat the process. We never tired of doing that.

Ice skating was something I wanted to do so badly but didn’t have skates until I was about 12 years old. I received them  as a present from my older sister that Christmas.  It didn’t take me long to learn to use them and soon I was doing spins and flying angels. Not exactly figure skating competition style but I thought I was good. I even learned to skate backwards and on rough ice that was a feat. Perhaps I had a head start because before I got my ice skates I used to take my roller skates to the ice rink. It wasn’t the same as blades but I had fun anyway.

Probably one of the favorite winter activities of all the kids in town was sledding. Our town had a 9 hole golf course that sported some pretty good sliding hills. It was only 2 blocks from my home so my brother and I were there a lot. There was timber along one side of the golf course and several good hills that went down through the trees. These were considered to be the challenging ones. One we named Rodeo Hill because of the big bumps that you would shoot off of. We had the traditional wooden sleds until the Christmas I was in the 6^th grade. That year “Santa” brought us a Red Rocket sled. It was the longest and grooviest sled in town. (See the picture) Sitting up it would easily hold 3 kids, but it was so fast and mostly we liked to go one at a time, lying on our bellies. The sled lasted many years and was passed on to my nephews who also enjoyed it. Those sledding parties usually meant that one or two of us would take a thermos of hot chocolate. Never mind the germs, we all drank from the thermos and lived to tell about it.

Sometimes we would just go to Richmond's Drug Store and read past editions of comic books.  Mr. Richmond never minded us coming in and sitting behind the one display case where the outdated comics were piled.  Not having a lot of money to spend for purchasing comic books, which were then 10 cents each, we were satisfied to read the old ones when they were taken off the rack.  I think we all became customers at the Richmond Drug when we were older.  The soda fountain there will long remain in my memories.

We also had a movie theater which changed movies 3 times a week. Sunday Monday and Tuesday featured the most current movies.  Wednesday and Thursday would have something that was older.  Friday and Saturdays were always a double feature and usually westerns or comedies. The ticket price was Free for pre-school, 10 cents up to 12 years old and 50 cents for 12 and older.  Popcorn was sold in 5 or 10 cent bags and you could buy nickle candy.  I saw a lot of movies and it took me until I had childen of my own to realize that the movies were my parent's baby sitter.  In those days it was perfectly safe to send young children to the movies alone in a small town. Everyone looked after each others children.