I remember.....snow days

My home from 1968 through 1975. White trimmed in green; the porch painted gray. The old cellar door there on the right hand corner of the house. I loved going down in that old cellar with my dad. The old dirt floor. I can just remember the smell and the dampness of it. Mom and Dad's beautiful dahlias were planted beside the cellar door under the kitchen window. I loved that long old front porch and at the end of it, the beautiful fragrant red roses that climbed up on the white trellis. The shrubbery in front of the porch had beautiful white flowers blooming on it in the springtime. That's my little sister by the light pole.  I remember that coat she is wearing!

My brother and I in the Colorado
Rocky Mountains. I was 3 years old
and he was 11.

This is the same house in the latter years that I lived there. I hated it when Mom and Dad decided to have the house sided in this hideous avocado green. My Uncle Bane and Dad did all the work. They tore off the wonderful old porch with its intricate columns and added this much smaller new one, which had a cold concrete floor surrounded by black rod iron railings. That's my oldest brother scooping off the snow from the roof.

My little sister and I. The
 snowman was wearing one
 of our dad's hats!

Yes, I remember. The snow was pure white; the sky a faded blue. I remember being bundled up and if I had fallen down, I wouldn't be able to get back up; I remember my red nose and my chilled fingers; I remember my toes being so frozen I thought for sure I had frost bite; I remember whenever we got snow it was at least up to our knees; I remember catching snowflakes on my tongue; I remember licking icicles and eating snow; I remember my mom telling me to not eat the yellow snow; I remember sledding with my friends, and wondering how I'd be able to walk home because I was so bone-chilling cold and I couldn't feel my toes; I remember making snowmen with my little sister; I remember making forts out of ice and snow; I remember making snow ice cream; I remember curling up in blankets to get warm after I came inside; I remember Mom's hot cocoa and marshmallows; I remember when snow days were my favorite thing.