# 15
"This Season"

the Beginning

a cats-eye view

When I was younger...
a lad of twelvish, say
The season started on
Thanksgiving day.
I prayed with all my heart
For snow to fall in
Great abundance.
First for play...
Castles, forts, and such.
But also for the
Chance...
The chance to cling
to the handle of a shovel.
The chance to earn a pocketful of
Change, and dollars.
Money with which to purchase gifts
For mom and dad,
Jeff, and Jule.

The season was less for me
Without the abundance of whiteness.
It was the essence of the season.
It ushered us, slipping and sliding
Gleefully into the season...
The season of imagination..
Of snow angels, snowballs,
Skating, skiing and
hooking cars*

Walking to Mrs. Patchin's
Two feet of fluffy
Blanketing the ground.
The flakes of snow, silver dollar
Size
Falling so thick and fast,
Drifting lazily in splendid profusion
so as to make me blink..
And my imagination,
My dreams, came in matching profusion..
Filling me with swelling emotion.
Cradling her gift,
Bought with my own shoveling money.
The first gift of the season
Was about to change hands.

There would be other
Gifts and such.
Midnight mass, and the Christ child.
Christmas trees and eggnog....
Toys and clothes and games.
But only one first gift.
The one that starts the season...

Merry Christmas Mrs. Patchin
Where-ever you are.

* Hooking cars. This was a time before road sand and salt. Bold souls, such as my friends and I, would hide between or behind parked cars and wait for a car to pass by. Then we would sneak out in a crouch and grab on to the passing car's rear bumper and let them pull us along, our feet sliding smoothly over the hard-packed, snow covered roads.
One caveat was ever present: scout the area to be sure there were no bare spots along the route. ;)

The snow would get so hard that we could literally ice skate in the streets. Many an impromptu hockey game was conducted in the middle of Oak Street!

the Finish

24 hours later

and five+ hours of shoveling.