WINTER TIME
Winter was Pudge’s favorite time of the ear; there were so many things to do. Of course, some of it was work. He had to
help his dad shovel out the driveway and the front walk after a snow storm. But that kind of work he enjoyed; except it
seemed like the snow plow always waited for his dad to go to work, then it went by and filled in the front of the driveway
again. More work for Pudge. As this was Pudge’s only winter chore there was usually plenty of time for play.
One winter he and Dan built a huge snow fort in Dan’s back yard and then took turns trying to capture it from each other,
using snowballs as weapons. This was heaps of fun until an errant snowball broke a window in a neighbor’s house. Pudge
and Dan had to dig into their allowances to pay for that mistake.
The hill on Maple Street, about three blocks from Pudge’s house, was a favorite place for sledding. Each winter the
police department put barricades at the top and bottom of the hill from 4 to 6 each afternoon during the snow season and
closed the street to traffic. Pudge and his friends got plenty of exercise dragging their sleds up the long hill and then racing
each other down again.
Usually, by Christmas time each year, Miller’s Pond froze over and was cleared of snow by the street department so that
ice skating became available. Pudge was an excellent skater; he had been taught how to skate at an early age by his
parents.
Because he was such a good skater he was often asked by older boys to join them in an impromptu hockey game.
Pudge was much smaller than the other players but quicker, thus he was quite successful in eluding their body traps. On
occasion, however, a bigger boy would trap Pudge along the edge of the pond and whack him good. Pudge frequently went
home with an assortment of bruises as the price he had to pay for his favorite sport. To Pudge it was worth it.