Snow days can be fun days to remember, at least when you are a kid. I am considered a winter baby being born on Dec. 30, 1968. However, the older I get, the colder I get and I’m not as fond of winter as when I was a child growing up on Tiger Mountain in the Pierce area. I can remember my Grandma Eloise always counting down the days until spring. She never truly wanted to even acknowledge winter, like that might make it go away quicker. So she would just start her countdown the first day December rolled around. Now that I’m older I understand why.

I would’ve been five days away from turning seven years old when McIntosh County set a snowfall record on Dec. 25, 1975, with 12 inches of snow in less than 24 hours. It’s funny as a kid how you remember snow storms differently than adults do.

I can remember my two older brothers and I bundling up and grabbing our round metal sled to go slide down the steep hill that our house sat upon. Hours upon hours we would spend sliding down that hill and trudging back up it to slide back down again. Our biggest worry was taking off all our wet layers in the utility room so Mom wouldn’t fuss too hard as she offered us hot chocolate to warm us up before we would head back out again. Of course, this was also the same hill where I slid down and hit the gas tank of an old truck, putting my bottom teeth through my lip. That was a fun day. HA.

But most snow days I remember falling back and making snow angels all over the yard. I also remember my dad dragging us around on an old car hood he had attached to his tractor. Talk about three squealing kids enjoying a snow day; we loved every minute of it.

We also loved when the small ponds would freeze over so we could skate on them. Of course, this would be after several super cold days to ensure that the ice was thick enough to hold our weight and not break. However, I remember two different times that playing on the ice did not have a good outcome. The first time being when my dad fell through the little pond in front of our house and it took both of my brothers to get him out. To say it was a very scary situation would be an understatement. It seemed like it took forever to get him out of the pond and back to the house to get out of the frigid wet clothes and get warmed back up. That day I learned even more the protective spirit of a mother when my mother made us all swear to never, ever skate on any ponds again. She pretty much demanded that our ice skating days were over. Unfortunately, I understood the reason why she was so protective years later when I became a parent and went through the heartache of watching a close friend lose their child when he drowned after going through their iced-over pond. My daughter had just been at their home the weekend before celebrating his birthday and it devastated us all.

So though snow days could be fun as a kid, they weren’t always fun as an adult. In fact, they could be downright brutal on a farmer and all his livestock. I remember my poor Dad and Grandpa would be out for hours tending to our cattle in frigid temperatures because there were calves to check on, hay to put out and ponds that had the ice had to be chopped through so the herd could drink without fear of falling through the ice. Chores on the farm were just harder in the cold weather with the elements against you. As a child I thought I understood all this, but as an adult I gained even a clearer picture of just how hard it was when I had to be the one helping with our cattle during an ice storm.

That was the year we moved into our new home too that was all electric. It was 2012 and just before Christmas. We were so excited. Then a blizzard hit us, knocking out electricity for over 12 days. Thank God we had a fireplace but it was still cold because a little fireplace with no blowers doesn’t warm 2,000 square feet. So we grabbed sleeping bags and camped out in front of the fireplace as well as we could. Of course I still had to help my dad with cattle so beating ice off round bails and chopping ice on the pond wasn’t so fun. Neither was coming in dirty and frozen but having no way to take a hot shower. Luckily I had refused to give up my propane cooking stove and was able to boil water and at least take a ”spit bath” with a warm rag and a little soap. That year when my husband asked what I wanted for my birthday I told him, “A hot shower!” So we loaded up the kids and drove carefully to Tulsa to get a hotel and a hot shower.

So now when we have snow days like this past weekend that brought in eight inches of snow, I prefer to stay inside mostly. I may get out to take a few pictures of all of its beauty and wonder, but afterwards you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be sitting by the fireplace with a hot cup of tea while I watch the snow fall outside from the warmth of my home.