memory monday

I had to write an autobiography for my Child Psychology class last semester, which got me thinking about some childhood memories. I decided that I would start "Memory Monday" for my blog and share some of those memories. Sounds fun, right? I thought so.

Since it's January, I think it is fitting to share a few memories including cold and snow. I was born and "raised" in Texas. I moved to Indiana when I was eleven, which is why I can't completely consider Texas as my home during my entire "raising". Anyway, Texas isn't typically known for having snow. It's not that we never had snow. Sometimes there was "snow", which was more like tiny balls of ice that would fall and collect in small piles on the ground. Whatever it was, it was a big deal for us. I remember going outside in the middle of the day in elementary school if it started "snowing" and we would all just stand around on the playground looking up at the sky and catching snow in our mouths. It was like we had been living in a cave and had just seen sunlight for the first time. Since snow was not very common, sledding was definitely not a common occurrence. However, I remember a particular winter that we got a big snow. By big snow, I of course mean less than one inch. You could visibly see the grass and driveways, but this did not stop us from attempting to sled. Our neighbors across the street from our house had a VERY steep driveway, so it was the perfect sledding hill. All the kids from the neighborhood gathered together to go sledding. Now, let me help paint this picture by explaining that we certainly did not have sleds. No, no. We had to make do with what Texan children have, which was, of course, pool supplies. We used inner-tubes, rafts and also trash can lids. They probably did not work as well as real sleds, but then again, there was less than 1 inch of snow/ice, so it probably wouldn't have been a great sledding experience regardless.

When we were a little older and lived in a different house, we had a little bit bigger snow storm. If my memory serves me correctly, snow covered the grass and roads. I have no idea how many actual inches of snow there was, but at the time, it seemed like a large amount. There were some kids in the neighborhood from Michigan, so they came out with ACTUAL sleds and they organized a real snow ball fight. We gathered around in the cul-de-sac and threw real snowballs at each other. It was such a blast.

Those are my only real memories of snow in Texas. My family went on ski trips every year to Colorado or New Mexico, so we had seen real snow before, but having it at our home was a different world. When we moved to Indiana, we were in shock of all the snow that was actually at our house that we could play in. It was a lot of fun.

Well, there it is. A few small memories of my childhood. I'm sure there will be more to follow...