when I was three years old, our family of five (my younger sister wasn't born yet) had just moved to Chagrin Falls, Ohio from Richmond, Virginia. My dad worked for DuPont and had been transferred to the Cleveland plant. My parents were sad to leave Richmond where they had been so happy, but were good sports about heading north.
Well! We three kids were so excited by the snow. We didn't get much of it in Richmond, but in Chagrin it snowed a lot. We moved shortly before Christmas, so the first thing my parents did, even before having a bathtub installed in the house, was put up a Christmas tree. The next thing they did was shop for warm jackets, snow pants, hats, mittens, scarves, and boots for their three children who couldn't wait to go play in the snow.
We all got sleds for Christmas, and our wonderful new home came with a hill right in the back yard. How perfect! The neighbors up the hill had a BIG hill and we had a smaller one, with a plateau in between which was marvelous for soccer games, badminton, and gymnastics practice in the warmer weather.
The neighbors were generous about sharing their hill, so we all started at the top of the big hill, swooped down, slid across the plateau, down the next hill, across the back yard and into the side yard. What fun! We'd all go trooping in for hot chocolate after a couple of hours, and can you imagine the jumble of wet clothing that came in with us? Mom had a drying rack in the basement, so we took our gear down to dry while we warmed up in the kitchen.
I have such good memories of those days, and sharing them with you makes me smile through my tears. I miss my dad, and I miss the way my mom was. Some days she doesn't even know me now, but we have good memories to be thankful for.
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5 comments:
Diana, these are lovely memories, and I enjoyed hearing about them. I also understand how much you miss how things used to be with your parents. We both are very blessed to have come from families with parents that loved us so much and did so much for us to make us happy when we were younger, I think. Wishing you and your family many blessings and a peaceful Christmas this week.
Daisy, you are so right. I had a delightful childhood full of such memories, more of which I'll be sharing. It's great therapy!
Your memories are so special and I am sure that you mum sometimes has very happy meomories of that as well. It's very hard when our parents age and we need to nuture and look after them, and sometimes they dont even understand.
I just have this happen vision of a big hill with heaps of snow and all these families laughing and playing.
It was a blast, but somehow I don't enjoy the snow as much as I used to. I prefer warmth and water. :>}
I'm hoping our children will look back and remember how much fun it was to go swimming!
Ladydi, what lovely memories to hold on to...you have been well blessed!..I think your Mom might have some moments when she remembers those happy times when her children were young and so was she, I know I do...I miss having my family around during the Holidays, they are all so far away...but it soon passes, I wipe the tears and be happy I had those joys....Ginny
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