Friday, April 1, 2016

Tender Years: Arkansas, My 1st Snow




"A grownup is a child with layers on." - Woody Harrelson

Peeling Back the Layers





I was no older than four, as we moved from Carthage, Texas by the time I was five.  For some reason, Mama & Daddy let Aunt Billie & Uncle Lenox take me to Arkansas with them to visit Mama Ruth, Daddy Jess, Aunt Catherine and Uncle Wayne.  Probably so my grandparents could see me.  

I have one clear memory from this trip, my first snow.  At the time, my relatives had a poultry farm with a big hen house.  I remember a huge building full of chickens and there was some kind of assembly that rotated the feed around.  We were walking from the house to this building after a snow.  I thought it beautiful and wonderful!  All I wanted to do was move over from them and walk in my own little path on the smooth white blanket. My cousin, Lukey, stopped me and said "Don't mess up all the pretty snow."  

I have no idea if any adult heard him, or noticed me.  For all the world I wish I had realized I didn't have to listen a cousin who was just a couple of years older and I had done what I had wanted to anyway.

What was your first snow memory?  Ever have a cousin or older sibling stop you from doing something you really wanted to do?  What memories did this evoke from your own childhood?

Thank you for sharing!

Barbara

60 comments:

  1. Great start to the month, Barbara.
    I don't know about my first snow memory, but the most vivid has to be 1963 when, as a newly-minted teenager, I was sat in the passenger seat of my dad's three-tonner (with an overcab compartment), driving through snowdrifts that were at least half as high again as the truck.

    Keith Channing at http://keithkreates.com

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  2. Now you're an adult and you can run all over the snow if you like!
    I lived in Japan the first couple years of my life and that's where I saw my first snow.

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  3. I don't remember my first snow. I do have an old 8mm film from when I was about two years old showing me walking in the snow... and then falling down.

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  4. I'm from the Buffalo area, so we have LOTS of snow stories. My favorites are the sledding ones.

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    1. I have never been sledding. Sledding and a sleigh ride is the only reasons I'd like to be in a good snow again.

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  5. I love your challenge theme this year! I don't remember my first snow, probably because snow was the norm growing up. Lots of fun memories snowmobiling, building snow forts, etc. I remember how tired my mother was of clean up snowmelt on her floors though and looking forward to putting the boots away.

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    1. OH, goodness yes! When we do get a little snow down here, everyone has to get out in it to tend to animals and then everyone wants to play a little, too. Tracks and mess and wet clothes all around!

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  6. Great memory, my first snow would have been in Virginia

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  7. Great A to Z challenge start!

    I can't remember my first snow - I guess when you grow up in northern Illinois and Wisconsin, snow is just something you just live with, rather than notice!

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    1. I'm sure we take all kinds of thing for granted in the area in which we live.

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  8. Great start! I know Arkansas from a great uncle who owned a 'chicken farm'...yup, there we go again...more in common. I was born in a snow storm in Iowa...no memory of that, but do remember first sandstorm in Texas...on birthday in January...ruined my party!
    Sue at CollectInTexas Gal

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    1. Sandstorm is one I've never encountered and don't want to! Too weird all the commonalities we keep finding!

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  9. Barbara,

    I grew up in southern WV, so snow happened quite a bit in the winter. However, I do remember when I was less than 2-years old my aunt built a snowman for me and at bath time I notice the snowman's head missing as I sat in a hot tub of water. We did not have running water or indoor plumbing when I was little and figured Mommy decapitated my snowman. lol I think most younger kids obey older kids, even if it's by a little because they haven't developed strong opinions yet. Nice A post!

    Curious as a Cathy
    All Things Vintage: Artists #AprilA2Z #BoTB

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    1. Great memories! Thanks for sharing! Hubby says there were many times he had to clean up under the water hose outside when growing up.

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  10. I think I would still have messed up the snow regardless of what my cousin may have said :)

    I was born in Pennsylvania; I remember snowy days when my mom was frantic driving us to school. She hated driving up hills in snow and ice; always feared she would get stuck. I don't remember playing in snow when we lived there, though. We moved when I was seven to sunny California.

    betty

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    1. I was rather timid and obedient when I was little, I didn't start to really assert myself until Jr. High. I despise to drive in any snow or ice here in SE Texas. After all, we see it so seldom, no one knows what they are doing.

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  11. A fun post. I grew up on the Mojave Desert. The first time I saw snow I was a senior in high school. It was only a dusting, but school was closed for the day. Yea!
    www.lorihenriksen.com

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    1. Oh, yes! We still have snow days here for any amount of snow.

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  12. Thanks for sharing. In California I don't see much snow where I am but I do remember once in the 60's when it snowed in San Bruno. Other than that, we have to drive 3 to 4 hours to find some snow.

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  13. At that age I would have jumped in first and asked questions later! We don't get much snow here and if we do it's as if our little part of the world just stops while everyone gapes in amazement;-) As a very young adult I made the grievous error of thinking I wanted to live in the Smoky Mountains - in the winter! I didn't make through the season before I hightailed it back to the desert:-)

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    1. Oh, you make me laugh! Snow gets a similar reaction where we live.

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  14. Snow? I guess we did some going up the mountains things, but I don't recall the first time we did. Snow's always been something I had to travel to see.

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    1. We never have much here, either. Now, I have no interest in it. But at that age, it was wonderful!

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  15. Snow was a big part of my growing up years in Michigan. Fond memories come of "snow days" with sledding instead of school. Two older brothers sometimes kept me in tow.
    @mzbull from
    Witt Bits
    MZ Bull

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    1. I do envy your opportunity to go sledding! Something I would have loved to try, but never had the chance.

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  16. My first snow was when I was 6 or seven and haven't seen many since. My mama took the wheels off our wooden wagon and put runners on but it wasn't hardly enough snow to sled in. She was from Oklahoma so knew some about snow, she made ice cream too. My gold fish died and we had a funeral and tried to bury it in the snowy ground.

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    1. How sweet of your mama to try to make you a sled! I do remember once when I was nine or ten and it snowed, daddy gathered some clean snow where it was thickest and mama made ice cream! Thanks for jogging that memory for me!

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  17. Barbara, I've driven through Arkansas a handful of times. Great people and awesome deep fried everything.

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    1. Uh, yeah, they have that deep fried thing in common with us down here in Texas. I made a number of trips there from this first one to one I made about a year after mama died.

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  18. Looking forward to your series! So informative.

    Damyanti, AZ cohost 2016

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  19. Being in Maine, I think my first snow is probably older than my first memory but even after all these years I still love seeing everything covered in a fresh coat of white.

    @WeekendsInMaine
    Weekends in Maine

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  20. I have no memories of my First snow. But I have memories of older brothers, sister, and cousins keep me from doing what I want to do. We are off to a great start!!

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    1. Ah-ha! Finally someone else who admits sometimes being bossed around by an older child relative!

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  21. I was born in Montana and raised in Idaho, so snow was a regular thing for me. But I do recall there was a girl in my first grade class that had just moved from California. When that first snow fall arrived, she just stared out the window, completely mesmerized.

    Mary
    Twitter: @KnottyMarie
    Literary Gold
    Jingle Jangle Jungle

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    1. There is something hypnotic in snow falling. It is generally the quietest weather event, too. Can really sneak up on you.

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  22. I don't have a first snow memory, but I have very many deep snow memories of growing up in NE Ohio when the snows were so much worse. They'd drift and seem insurmountable. But as a kid, I loved those high piles of snow. Best way to make a snow fort? Dig a hole in a big mound and pat the walls flat. That is my favorite memory of snow. Forts and making piles of snowballs.

    Great theme!
    Cherdo
    Cherdo on the Flipside
    "Favorite Characters, Favorite Lines" on the A-to-Z Challenge 2016

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    1. Oh, that does sound like great fun for a kid! All I could ever do was make pine straw lines for walls and have a dirt floor.

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  23. My first snow was at my grandma's house, I'm not sure how old I was. There was just a light dusting on the ground, but my cousins and I tried to have a snowball fight anyway :)

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    1. When cousins are involved, why does play always seem to end up being some battle?! LOL

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  24. That's a sweet memory :-)

    I dont' rememeber the first time I saw the snow, though it doesn't happen often around here. I do remember a year, when I was a kid, when it snowed very heavily, so much so that snow had to be piled at the sides of the road. It was a very very unfamiliar look to me. A couple of decades had to pass before I saw it again.

    @JazzFeathers
    The Old Shelter - Jazz Age Jazz

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    1. We don't get many snowfalls in this area either. I know even a light covering sure changes the look of the landscape. Almost makes you wonder if you are really where you think you are.

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  25. I don't remember my first snow, but it didn't really snow that often where I grew up in South Carolina. However, in January 1987, we had a huge snowstorm and then another just a few weeks later. This happened about the time of my first airplane ride. It was amazing to see it from the sky!

    I didn't have an older sibling to boss me around; I was the oldest. However, my little sister was the boss of our house. I don't remember my cousins bossing me around.

    I am enjoying your theme, Barbara!

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    1. I wouldn't want to fly in a snow storm, but I'd love seeing snow covered ground from the sky would be pretty awesome.

      Seems everyone gets bossed by someone!

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  26. Great memory. One of my oldest memories was visiting either friends or family and they had a slight hill out in back. They lived far away from other people so while parents were inside talking, us kids went out to play in the snow and slide down the hill.

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  27. We don't have snow where I live, so the first time I saw snow was in 2014 when I was already 30!

    Anna
    ATSP @ Deeply Shallow
    @natzers

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    1. Well it was still your first snow, so how'd it make you feel? Did you like it? Did you play in it? Stay indoors? Come on Anna!

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  28. Oh my! I hate snow! Growing up in south TX the first snow I ever saw was when I was about nine. Of course all of us kids wanted to go and play in it. What else would kids want? Mama bundled us up and we tried our best to scrape enough of the stuff together to make a snowman, which was half mud. We only had about two inches of snow.

    In later years, as a young adult, I spend five winters in Alaska and that's why I hate snow. I have no desire to ever see it again unless it's in the mountains way away from me.

    Not many cousins told me what to do because I'm the oldest kid in our family and we only had one set of cousins and some second cousins we rarely saw. I was the one telling the others what to do during childhood.

    Good start to the A to Z.

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    1. I don't want to live anywhere with regular snows or ice storms. It was only fun when I was a kid. Happy for you that you got to be your own boss!

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  29. i'm from new orleans (now living in sf bay area) and it doesn't snow often. my first real memory of snow is 1963 - more like slush by the time us kids woke up. then bundling up, that same day, to watch the sugar bowl game in tulane stadium. that was the year kennedy was assassinated. i was 12. already a poet. i felt overwhelmed by the year, and disappointed that snow could be so boring.
    thanks for passing by my blog.
    p.s. my arm is broken - thus co caps :P)
    ellespeth (from https://balconyviewz.wordpress.com/)

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    1. OH, you poor dear! Hope you mend soon.
      I was three in 1963, so I knew nothing of Kennedy at the time.

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  30. When my grandkids lived in Texas and California they saw their first snow visiting me in Massachusetts.

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So glad you stopped by! Come 'round any time. ~ Barbara

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