Memories

I went to the Wargo Nature center with my son and his friends recently to learn about how to tap maple trees and make maple syrup. It didn't take long before I was back in third grade, remembering when I did the same thing on a school trip. The third grade field trip I remember featured thick gooey mud on the trail to walk out to the trees. It was so thick I ended up having the mud pull my boot right off my foot and stepping right into some very thick mud in my socks - twice. Thinking about those old rubber boots with felt liners and Julie's post about "the in between" made me think about how and why this time of year used to be my favorite.

I lived in Richland Center, Wisconsin from kindergarten through third grade. The streets had quite a high crown and very deep gutters. When spring came we would get these fantastic overhangs of snow and ice from the edge of the street extending into the street a few feet. By March there would be water running underneath these ice ledges. Every day after school we would wander around town jumping up and down on these ice shelves and in the process damming up the streets with water that could no longer run to the storm sewer. I would come home soaking wet, head to foot but full of sheer joy that can only come from jumping in puddles and damming up the streets.

Last weekend I kept a sharp lookout for street ice shelves like that but couldn't find any proper ones to jump on.