View from the Cab: Snow many memories
By Kent Casson
I couldn’t help but look out my office window the other day as the snow gently fell on our farm with holiday music playing in the background. It truly was the perfect scene.
Though the wind chills were hard to tolerate that day, it was neat to see the first “dusting” of the white stuff here in Central Illinois. It takes me back to the old days when my brother and I would always find something to do outside on a snow day home from school.
Some years brought more snow days than others, but it was always fun to build a snow fort in the giant drifts on the edge of the field. I went beyond using my gloves to dig – I got the big snow shovel out to make giant tunnels that even the cats enjoyed climbing inside. I just hoped the roof or walls wouldn’t collapse when I walked on it.
Even though we live on some of the flattest land in the world, we found ways to pretend like we were sledding down a giant hill even if it meant getting a running start on the small hill our house was built on or running out to the ditch near the road. We had to get creative sometimes by pulling the sled behind the snowmobile through the ditch and even on the ice of our pond a few miles away.
I realize snowmobiling seems to be a thing of the past around here but boy did we have fun on those old John Deere sleds. Family members and friends would come over to take the snowmobiles for a spin across the open fields. Since we chiseled the ground back then, it was better to drive across bean stubble than ripped corn stalks. Those giant dirt clods could take out a track!
The memories made on those snow days will always stay with me. Like the time we got the snowmobile buried in a giant snow drift two miles away beyond the back 80 and our grandma had to come pick us up. We dreaded making that phone call to Dad who was at work that day. Or the time the snowmobile kept driving itself almost taking out the mailbox while we jumped off. Good times.
Mom would have a hot meal like chicken and dumplings waiting for us when we came in from a cold day out in the snow and we occasionally warmed-up with a cup of hot chocolate and a few cookies to go with it.
I hope one day our kids can experience all of that snow on some snowmobiles traveling across the open farm fields.
The memories will always stay with me, especially as we approach the holiday season.
