Reminisce ... old stories

[Joe S.]

Reminisce...old stories. I notices from my post on another thread about being pulled out by a tractor when I floated a car onto a snow bank that others wanted to do the same so I thought a thread for such stories would be good.

There is also a magazine by this name that my mother used to get. Reminisce.com

When I was small, Mom just loved hockey. As soon as it was cold enough, we would start hauling buckets of water into the back yard. Over the course of several days, we would create an ice rink so I could practice skating and puck handling. I was never very good and the wind blowing off the prairie was very cold at night. I was placed in a game with boys 3 years older than me with the obvious results. I decided it was not a game for me.

Every Christmas at my grand parents lake place I would go out and shovel a small rink so that when my cousins arrived, we could all go out and skate. If it was not smooth enough to twirl and dance on, I was back to hauling those buckets of water to get a smooth surface.

[eyeamdry]

Joe, I grew up in Northern Michigan where hockey was a way of life.  If you were a boy, you played hockey and if you were a girl, you figure skated. 
We did the same thing with water freezing and we had a good skating stadium in town.  For some reason, my Dad used to take me (a girl) to hockey games with him on the weekend.  I loved going.  Gordie Howe played at the rink when he was a young man for one of Detroit farm clubs.  This was before he was famous.

We had 2 more girls and 1 boy in my family, but I don't remember any of them going.  I think my mother probably told him to "get her out of the house for awhile."  That's all I can think of.  I never played hockey, althogh girls do nowadays.  I still go to hockey games with my husband or daughter.  We have a UHL or IHL team in town here and they are pretty good.  They keep changing what their designation they are. IHL or UHL...........

The magazine you speak of is still around I think.  When I went to visit my childhood friend in the northern peninsula, she showed me the book and she has a subscription to it.  Hockey is a pretty rough game.  Even figure skating is a rough one when you take to the ice and one of the boys runs you over. 

[irish]

This isn't so long ago---ahem!!! Well, maybe some will think it is. My dad and mom ran a restaurant when my sister and I were growing up. They bought an old house about 3 houses from main street so it was close to walk to work.

This old house was kitty corner from the library where I spent a whole lot of time growing up and across the street from the towns ice skating rink. Man, did I have it made!!! I loved to ice skate. Most all the kids ice skated back in the late 50, and early 60's.

The lights were so bright on the rink at night and they played this really neat music plus the Christmas music. The kids would gather just about every night and play games, crack the whip, etc. Most of us could skate pretty darn good. At first the warming house had a wood stove and we would go in and place our mittens on the stove to dry. What a memorable smell. There was an old grandpa that worked there and would help put on the skates of the really young kids.

This was back in the days when you could send two 7 year old neighbor kids on the walk across town to the ice skating rink and not worry about them being kidnapped. Boy, the freedom of those days was awesome.

When our boys were growing up they didn't skate much cause I would have to take them into town, etc. WE hobby farmed and they were too busy cleaning barn, etc. I remember the one year in the early spring when after a winter with a ton of snow we had an early thaw only to have a hard freeze again with cold weather.

The county tiles backed up and froze and our pasture had a huge pond that they skated on and played hockey. I can still see them in my mind with the sun shinning in the late afternoon having a ball. Back in those days the kids played outside just about all the time. Life was sure different for them than it is now. The internet changed all of our lives forever. Irish

[Joe S.]

Navydad, Sounds like you were a thrill seeker as a kid!

[Joe S.]

Wow, that brings back memories of canoeing! We portaged around waterfalls like the one you showed. We came to one in a lake that stretched about a 1/4 of a mile with a two foot drop. The scenery in the "boundary waters canoe area" was fantastic. One portage that we did was into an isolated lake surround by rock cliffs. Fifty foot from the top of the cliff and Fifty foot from the high water level on the rocks was a script that was carved into the rock. Several lines across a 20 foot wide band. It reminded me of the dancing men code from the Sherlock Holmes books. We were told that the natives of the area had no idea what it said, how it was done or when.

We tied two canoes together as a catamaran and sailed some of the lakes. We camped on huge boulders using rocks to hold the tents up. I did the trip as a Boy Scout. The things that I did not like was that a couple of the boys wanted a lighter pack and I had to wear the same cloths for ten days. This was complicated by the blood poisoning that I got from Black Flies. My head was swollen like a basket ball. Every morning I pealed my clothing off my weeping wounds and washed it out to wear for the new day. I think that may have contributed to my not liking the outdoors like I used to.

[Joe S.]

To paraphrase a line from a movie, "It is not the age, it is the mileage and the damages".

[Pisces24]

 I remember all the nuances to using a wringer washer and two rinse tubs to do laundry.
Also how and where you hang clothes on the line (Undies in the middle.) and not to let the cat or dog near the line if you have sheets or something hanging low to the ground. LOL

[Katybarstool]

Pisces

I remember the washers with the wringer - particularly the electric wringers that squashed my fingers when I was about 10 years old.

My clearest Christmas memory is when my three sons were little. They shared ne bedroom and went bed very excited on Christmas eve. When they were all asleep DH and myself crept into their bedroom to fill their stockings - or should I say tried to. The little monkeys had booby trapped the room, to capture Santa Claus. OH had a very sore leg for a few days, and the boys did a lot of nudging and winking, when they thought we were not looking!  Christmas was never quite the same after that.

Kathyx

[irish]

Remember when Christmas was a more relaxed holiday---lots of homemade treats that none of us would eat today because they have too much cholesterol. Remember when the stores all closed for the holidays. You could drive through town on Christmas and not a soul is seen on the street.

Christmas Eve was the kids church programs and the bags of apples and candy that were handed out afterwards. Man, life has gotten so stressful that people don't enjoy the holidays lilke they used to.

I told hubby tonight that I can't believe the amount of advertising that the stores are doing as the paper is loaded with flyers every day. The stack of flyers that has piled up in the last 3 weeks is unbelieveable. There is just so much money a person can spend, isn't there???

Remember going to the big department stores to shop back when main street was still there. Also, the little shops on main street that sold only womens clothing or mens clothing. It was so much fun to shop then. Clothes had more quality. Everything in Walmart, Target, etc looks the same. There are very few of those nice little shops left anymore.

Friday night shopping on main street with the popcorn wagon by the curb. The downtown movie theater that always had a line on the weekend. Everyone going to town to shop and visit.  Wow, such memories. Irish

[Joe S.]

Does anyone remember hooking up Bessie to the wagon sled to take a load of hay out to the pasture or for a quick trip to the neighbors?

[Pisces24]

Way back when I was a child, the downtown had a movie theater.  For a Saturday in December they would have free kid's cartoons/movies for the afternoone (about 2-3 hrs) to free the parents to shop the downtown merchants.

We also had the animated window displays that I really miss not seeing anymore.

[Scottietottie]

Hi 

No animated shop windows??     Maybe we are just back in the olden days. We still have a store in town that has an animated shop window every year.

Take care - Scottie 

[irish]

I remember the wringer washing machine. I would help my mom and one day I put my whole right hand through the wringer along with the clothes. It hurt.

Also, Pisces, I had forgotten about the free cartoons on the Saturday in December. Santa Claus would come the give out candy. Glad you shook that memory loose. I need to write some of this stuff down before I forget it again.

Scottie, we hardly have any shops left in our town. Up town is mostly insurance offices, etc. We have Walmart, a couple grocery stores, a dollar store which is very good. Quite a few of the gift shop/antique shops. I really miss having all those stores full of business. It made Christmas shopping and all shopping so much better.

Remember when the stores were all closed for Christmas and  while waiting for the Christmas dinner you would sit and crack nuts and suck on those hard Christmas candies that all tasted the same. I haven't had nuts with shells for years or that candy. Irish

[Bucky]

Irish - my husband and I were just talking the other night about when we grew up and our parents had the "nut bowl" full of various nuts that you cracked open and used a pick to get the "meat" out of the shell.  Ahhhh . . . the memories.  Both hubby and I have our Moms nut "tools".   Most people today buy the nuts already shelled.

I also fondly remember the Christmas candy my Grandmother had in the glass candy dish on the coffee table.  The "ribbon" candy and the kind that was hard candy in cut glass designs  that also included those little "pillow" candies.  They still sell them in the store - they usually come in a little tin.  These ones had different flavors. 

At Grandma's house us kids would very, very carefully lift the candy dish lid and get some candy and very slowly put the lid back so the adults in the other room wouldn't know we were into the candy dish.  Then we'd hear . . . "get out of the candy dish!" from the other room.  Moms and Grandma's . . you know they have radar hearing!!  LOL

Now you make me want to go to the store and get some clearance Christmas candy - just for old times sake.   

Another fond memory of growing up is my Grandmother's Christmas tree.  She had one of those 6 ft. silver pom-pom trees.  We have many, many holiday pictures with all the grandkids standing according to height in front of this tree.  Several years ago I found a 4 ft. silver pom-pom tree at a garage sale for $1.  I LOVE this tree.  One year my parents got me a color wheel for this tree . . best present ever.   

After seeing Genko's tree with all those old ornaments on it - next time I am "home" visiting my Dad - I want to go up into the attic and see if there is any of Mom's old Christmas ornaments up there.  Preserve those memories from when I was growing up.

Bucky

[Joe S.]

We went to our daughters in laws for Christmas day. The kids had made a sled path down the hill. I saw a brand new (grain) scoop shovel. I remember as a small child using that to slide down the hill. I think I was about six or seven at the time. After what seemed like hours going down the hill I went back to the car for sandwiches and coco. I continued sledding until sunset. My cousins and I went back to the cars and rode with our parents back to our grandparents to open presents for Christmas eve.

Writing it down now I realize that it was a distraction so the presents could be placed under the tree. It still is a great memory.