Snow Games
With all of the snow falling recently, I usually have to remove it one shovelful at a time from my drive and walkway. Snow wasn’t so bad when I was a kid. I appreciated it for what it was; something different for me to enjoy. I’m not sure if the youth of today still play the same games and find pleasure in the snow activities that I did. Most of the games were played during recess in school. My home was a mile away from any other kids my age. The neighbor boys were older and the only activity that we shared was sledding.
Some outdoor games were played either at my grandparent’s Ray and Becky Rugg Miner’s house when cousins gathered or at school. At  Gram’s house we didn’t have sleds to ride although there were several hills that would have made great places to go sledding. It was restricted to snowball fights, building snowmen, or making forts.
Fox and geese was a game we played when several kids gathered. We’d stamp down a large maze of trails within an even larger circle. At the center was the safe space, a trampled down area usually about three or four feet in diameter. One kid was designated the fox while all others were geese. The “geese” had to remain on the predetermined trails. It was the responsibility of the fox to catch a goose before it escaped to the safe center. A goose couldn’t stay in the center for long and the fox couldn’t tag a goose while safe in the base, but if a goose was caught on the trails, the roles would be reversed and the goose would automatically become the fox.
Another activity was creating snow angels. I’m sure most of us have made a snow angel at one time. Falling backward into the snow, the kid would drag its arms up and down while spreading and closing its legs to form a “winged” angel impression in the snow. The real challenge was to get up from the angel without marring its shape.
Some winter games I remember we played were inside games at my grandma Becky’s. It was more likely when we stayed at her home when the power was out. We would carry water for her, while her coal furnace and kitchen woodstove kept us warm.
Board games of Pollyanna or Parcheesi were played by the light of an oil lamp. Grandma Miner liked to play dominoes most anytime, especially Muggins where she secretly taught us math skills counting the domino dots. We even played an occasional game of checkers or the card game of war.