Monday was a “Snow Day” in this part of Kansas! School, events and some business closings were announced Sunday as a winter snow warning was issued. The large snowflakes began falling in the late night or early morning. It was coming down so thick that viewing out our farmhouse windows was limited. Reports on the weather were coming in. It seemed Mankato and Superior made the news as having some of the highest amounts of snow being 8” to 10” as of noon. Right after lunch, the snow seemed to quit falling but a small amount more was expected later in the day, and again Tuesday.
As the sun began to appear after lunch, I noted the birds were hanging around on the bushes beside the bird feeders we have stationed in our back yard. It made me wish I had gone out Sunday afternoon to fill the feeders. Our cats didn’t seem to mind the snow as we watched them jumping in and out of a shed, into the snow as if they were playing, and maybe they were.
I remember how I celebrated as a youngster when my dad or mom would wake us up on a school day and tell us there would be no school that day because of the snow. My sister and I would jump out of bed with so much energy, way more energy than what we had to get ready for school. We’d “bundle up” as Mom would put it, in our heavy coats, gloves, over shoes and caps. Then we would head outside to play in the snow. Inside the house we’d enjoy playing board games, coloring a picture, or play with paper dolls.
When I was compiling a notebook about the history of the Heskett family, I enjoyed reading the thoughts and memories my aunts and mother shared about their life growing up in the dirty 30s and early 40s on the farmsteads in Holmwood Township, Jewell County, Kansas. There were nine children in the family. They told of how they rode horses, often bareback, three miles to and from their country schools in all kinds of weather. They shared that when it was too cold or snowy, their father, my grandfather, would load the children up into a horse drawn wagon covering them up with quilts and blankets, and take them to school. Grandfather would stay for a while at the school and see if the teacher needed help getting the wood stove going to heat up the one room building.
The aunts and mother remember pulling up their chairs, gathering around the school’s wood stove trying to stay warm. On those cold and wintery evenings after chores and supper, the children would gather around Grandmother’s chair. She would read stories to them and they could hear the cold winds blowing outside. The Heskett children also enjoyed it when it snowed and their father would take them for a ride in a wooden sled he used to haul cream cans filled with water from the windmill to the house. Grand father tied the sled rope to the horn of the saddle, and climbing onto the horse named Rex, he would pull the children on a fun winter’s sled ride.
What fun winter snow memories.
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