GRAVETTE — The snow this winter made me remember the heavy snows in Nebraska. Though I was only eight when we came to Arkansas, I can still recall the deep snows and blizzards that blew the frozen white stuff even deeper.
One winter with especially deep wind-blown drifts my brothers had to shovel a path to the barn. When I walked that path it felt like I was in a tunnel, the sides of the snow towering high above my head. It never gets that deep here, but I’ve always loved to see snowflakes coming down.
Once, in Nebraska, I went outside to play in the snow. I guess I stayed out too long. When I came into the house I couldn’t feel my hands when I took off my mittens. Momma ran cold water over my hands and it actually felt hot. As my fingers began to tingle I cried while my hands thawed.
Mom worked as a mail carrier. When the snow would get too deep outside, Papa would drive the pickup for her on the route. With Papa gone Momma would let us play post office under the table - not the current way it’s played.We used the chairs as post office boxes and pretended we were sorting mail.
After moving to the Ozarks the snows seemed mild. One white winter, when my brother Paul and I boarded at the Holiness Bible School in Gravette, we decided to go home for the weekend. We got a ride the first half of the trip, then Paul rode his bike with our suitcase dangling over his handlebar, as I walked the snow ruts beside him. It was slow going until Elmer Kelly, a neighbor, (Dodie’s father-in-law) drove by. He offered us a ride, but since there was no place for Paul’s bike, he declined. My brother told me later, “I’d have made itfine if you had taken the suitcase with you.” I’d been so thrilled at getting a ride I’d completely forgot about the heavy bag.
It may have been that same winter when I fractured my wrist. Some classmate had poured water on the snow and it made a great skating rink. Unfortunately, I fell down. Dr. Wilson, the only doctor in Gravette, put my arm in a cast. I don’t think he even had an x-ray machine and he charged my folks $10. When the cast came off six weeks later, my arm was so weak I could hardly use it.
When we kids attended Southwest City School, snow days became sled days. There was a small hill behind the school. When I was only in the fourth grade, an older boy brought his sled, and for some reason he took me up and down that rise during recess. That’s the most fun I’d ever had.
When my granddaughter Morgan was smaller she loved to play outside in the snow. School would be out, of course, and she would get all bundled up in her heavy snowsuit to make a snowman or snow angels as I watched her through the window. I could hardly get her to come inside. Now Morgan is nearly grown. I don’t think she rode in a sled once this winter. She just worried how she would get her car down the icy or snow-packed road so shecould be with friends.
During one long past snowstorm Jerry drove me into town in his 4-wheel drive pickup a couple of times but I mostly stayed inside by the fire and worked on jigsaw puzzles - my favorite thing to do during snow days.
Marie Putman, one-time Gravette resident, shares her thoughts with our readers twice every month.
Opinion, Pages 4 on 03/03/2010