Author Archives: megan

I love the delight on my girls’ faces when they wake up to find themselves facing the pinnacle of childhood freedom: the snow day.

Photo, Oregon Department of Transportation via Wikimedia Commons

They’ve been hoping for one with each snow we’ve had. I’ve never known a kid who didn’t love a snow day. And that got me wondering about snow days of yore.

Just like today, kids enjoying a snow day 100 years ago might break out their Flexible Flyers for a slide down the hill. The sled made its debut in the 1910s and by the end of 1915, consumers were purchasing 2,000 sleds a day.

Photo courtesy of The_Childrens_Museum_of_Indianapolis via Wikimedia Commons

After sledding, they might come inside for hot cocoa, but making it was a whole different ballgame in the days before microwaves and convenient packaged mixes. Hot cocoa had to be boiled, a long process that involved steeping cocoa shells or cracked beans and could take upwards of an hour.

While waiting, siblings and friends might have enjoyed a friendly game of Rook, a card game invented at the turn of the century whose deck did not include any face cards, thereby rendering it useless for gambling and safe for family play. By then, the gang might mosey back outside and gather teams for ice-barrel ball, a sport that falls somewhere between hockey and basketball and involved two opposing teams trying to throw a ball into a barrel while ice skating.

I’m sure those kids got all tuckered out, just like mine. It’s good to know some things never change.

You know the old saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Well, what if life gave you lots of snow instead? You’d make a snowman, of course, or better yet, how about a giant sea turtle?

The Bartz brothers from New Brighton, Minnesota, have done just that, right in their front yard, and it’s not the first time they’ve caught the attention of the neighbors. Their tradition began four years ago with the creation of a giant puffer fish, inspired by one that was caught by the brothers while fishing in Florida. The next winter brought a walrus, the one after that a giant shark, and now a 37-foot-long sea turtle stands 12 feet high outside their front door. The boys spent about 300 hours sculpting the turtle with snow gathered from 11 neighboring yards and a tennis court in their neighborhood. The snow was hauled to the garage on a sled to warm up a bit (think perfect snowman snow) before being mounded in the yard and sculpted using only hands and shovels. The sea turtle encourages a steady flow of traffic to the neighborhood, and admirers of years past say this sculpture is the best yet.

The Bartz brothers hope to maintain the sea turtle for another month before allowing the inevitable return of spring to melt it. They plan to continue on with their sea creatures theme for a bit, and then they might enlist the help of their fans to decide what’s next.

Just before the holidays, Mom and I snuck off to the big city for a couple of meetings and some Mom/Daughter time. The city was bustling as usual, but the holiday cheer was an experience in its own.

And somehow the nighttime was even more spectacular than usual. I’d never seen a tree as large as the glistening Rockefeller tree (this year’s tree was an 85-foot Norway spruce from Hemlock Township, Pennsylvania).

We spent two hours in Macy’s “shopping,” but are such country bumpkins that we didn’t buy a thing.

The Empire State Building is a marvel at night. And I took one silly selfie during the daytime. Only because I decided we needed a poinsettia for our hotel room, and as I walked back to the room, it began to snow on me and my mini poinsettia. Happiness.

In the midst of what seems like almost-daily bad news, I was recently touched to hear a feel-good story about a dog who rides public transit in Seattle all by herself in order get to the dog park. It appears that the 2-year-old black Labrador mix named Eclipse has become a regular fixture on the D-line. The bus stop is right in front of her house, and if her owner is not quite ready to go, she jumps on board alone and meets him later at the dog park. Regular riders say that she sits quietly in her seat and watches out the window for her stop, and transit authorities say they are happy that Eclipse can appreciate public transit, although she really should be on a leash. This whole idea made me giggle.

Does the age-old phrase “country pup vs. city pup” still hold true?? Haha. Our golden retriever wouldn’t know what to do with public transit, but he’ll happily hop right up into the bed of a pickup. Hmmm, maybe he could fake it like I do when I make a trip to the city?