Winters to me as a young child caused mixed emotions. Christmas and skating were the only things that eased the pain of long months of cold weather Winter was the time in our village, when most school aged kids met at what was known as the old pond, an outdoor skating rink. There were no boards to define edges or goalie nets for hockey players.

This was the place to go for young children to learn to skate, mostly aided by older brothers and sisters. As soon as the ice was a couple of inches thick, the high school boys would shovel and clear a good sized skating rink for everyone from the village to use. There was time set aside for a game of shinny hockey and tag games were spontaneous.

The rink was always available to enjoy being with friends and gliding along the ice in our old hand me down skates. Logs on stumps made benches so that we could lace up our skates. Boys collected discarded Christmas trees for fire wood so we could warm our hands. No one ever lost a pair of snow boots or mitts due to theft back then.

We all became good skaters and have wonderful memories of the many hours at the old pond. Mom always had a big pot of hot chocolate waiting to warm us up when we got home.

Village life nurtured the values of working and playing together. And that's the way it was.

Cathy, for Writers' Ink , Sept. 2014