The children we were, saw things so differently than the adults we now are do.  Take, for example, the moon on snow.  The adult in me just thinks cold….when the child I used to be thought only of sledding down Putneys Hill.

I grew up in a very small town in Southwester Michigan.  Right behind my house was a hill….Putney’s Hill is what is was known as.  And it was an amazing hill for sledding.  When there was snow, it was always a race between the neighborhood kids to see who was going to get to the hill first and make the runs.  And when it was a full moon, with a good bed of snow…oh great screaming jaysus….that was the jackpot.

There is a certain kind of blue that the moon light reflects off of snow.   It is a bluish color.  Strange to think that yellow moon light would reflect blue off of white snow.

The shadows are the darkest of india ink, and the snow itself is cerulean.

I, for the life of me, do not remember ever making plans with any of my friends to meet up after dark to go sledding.  It is something that just happened.  You have to remember that this was the mid 60’s and the world was a different place.  Hell, for those of us who lived in my little town…we were used to being kicked out of the house in the morning and not expected to be home until dark.  So for us to go out sledding in the night was not something that was thought of as anything but normal.

And given the opportunity, rarely did we disappoint.  I remember a night when it was snowing big, fat, fluffy flakes under a full moon.  Of course in my mind it would have to be a full moon, now wouldn’t it?  Anything else just would not suffice.

Regardless…..notice i don’t use irregardless…which isn’t a real world…it is an bastardization…and there are enough bastards out there as it is.

Regardless.

I remember making my way to the top of the hill and starting to make the run.  Our sleds of choice were the either saucers, or the plastic toboggans that were coming out.  I had a flexible flyer…and awesome sled, but only good when the run had been packed down.

Without the run being packed down, the flyer would cut right through to the ground and come to a dead stop.  But on a packed run..the flyer was a demon of speed.

But I digress…as is usual for me.

I had just started packing down the run when here came Tammy, Karen, and Tim.  Soon after that was the Bogart clan.  When it was all said and done we had close to a dozen kids on that hill under the moon light.  Laughing, and yelling, and raising all kinds of hell as we would jump on sleds and race to the bottom….just to get out, trudge back up to the top and do it all over again.

At some point someone would start getting cold, or someone’s parent would yell for them.  And the group would splinter.  But there was that feeling of being under the full moon, racing like demons down that hill…….pure bliss.  Pure heaven.

What memories do you have of winter nights with your friends?  I would love to hear of them.  Just click on the comment link down below and share.  I thank you very much.