First Snowfall

Photo by Jerry Apps

When I was a kid, the first snow in the fall was special. If we were on schedule, and Pa usually was, the fall harvest was completed—cob corn filled the corn crib, the silo was full, the oat bin in the granary was about to run over, the hay mows in the barn were stacked to the roof. All that was left to do was to make some wood as we heated our farm home with woodstoves in those days.

For my brothers and me, it meant looking for our sleds and skis that were stored somewhere in the woodshed. Summer softball and swimming were fun, but sledding and skiing were equally so. And dare I say, no other kind of fishing could be compared to ice fishing, which we did a lot of once the nearby lakes froze over.

At the country school, we switched from warm-weather games to playing fox and geese, a tag game laid out in a wheel-like circle in the snow with the spokes coming together in the middle. Lizzie Hatliff owned the land back of the school yard, which had a long hill, ideal for sledding and skiing. When we tired of fox and geese, it was off to Hatliff’s hill.
If the weather warmed enough to begin melting the snow, we switched to snowball fights—I don’t recall how we decided who should be on which side of the battle. One rule never to be broken, do not. hit anyone in the head with a snowball.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The first snow marked the beginning of winter, not the calendar.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 9, (Saturday) 9:00 a.m. 2nd Sat. Plymouth Art Center, Plymouth, WI. Sheboygan County Historical Research Center. “Farm Winter With Jerry Apps”

November 14, (Thursday) 6:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. The Land Still Lives launch.

November 18, 1:00 p.m. Kiel Public Library, Kiel, WI. “Wisconsin. CCC”

.For those interested in purchasing my books (Christmas is coming). Get them from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you travel to the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.. They have a great selection of my books for sale, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414.
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