Red rubber boots, plastic bread bags and more

Ahhh, those were the days!

I got reminded of all this by a Facebook meme a few days ago. Anyone else have their Mom stuff their stocking feet into plastic bread bags before putting on their boots as a kid to keep their feet dry? And how about those red rubber boots with the fasteners on the side that used to slip over your shoes? Remember wearing snow-pants with the suspenders and the straps on the feet or snowsuits to school over your clothes? If you grew up in upstate NY, or anywhere else cold as a witches unmentionable body part, chances are, you know what I'm talking about.

I wore my little red boots until my shoes would no longer fit into them. I remember being very relieved because those things were pretty embarrassing for a 5^th grader. That is, I was relieved until my Mom gave me her highly unfashionable and quite large, slip on pleather boots to wear. To this day, I remember being so embarrassed when my friends wanted to compare sizes. I guess when you're a kid, you never think about things like, “Hey, my Mom is going without her boots so my feet can be warm.”

Anyone go to Catholic School? They had lunch tokens shaped like stop signs at ours. I was always so nervous when I had to go buy them from the office lady, who was, of course, a nun. All the employees in our school were nuns. Remember how intimidating nuns could be? One day, I lost my lunch token in a snowdrift. I froze my fingers off digging to no avail. Oh, the look I got when I went slinking into the office with that story begging for another, bowing my head in shame.

You upstate New Yorkers who grew up in the 60's and 70's, some of these memories are just for you. That was an interesting time, wasn't it? Funny, though, we didn't mind it as kids. Remember how your nose used to freeze shut or get “snot-cicles” in the winter from the humidity and frosty air? How about that snow/ice hitting your face like a pack of overzealous needles?

Remember how your Mom would have that homemade hot cocoa waiting for you when you came inside? Kind of made it all worthwhile, didn't it?

Remember jumping or sledding off your roof into or down or under or over the humongous snowdrifts of the lake effect blizzard of 77? Remember how we got out of school for a couple weeks, got “stuck” at our friends' houses? No? Just me. Bwa ha ha ha. My bad? Shhhh! I did it on purpose. Good times!

Remember hitching a ride on army personnel carriers to get to the store?

I'm sure that some of my old school friends are saying, “Hello, I still live here in the frozen north country. Some of these things still happen to me.” Hey, they happen to me too, even though Colorado is where I hang my hat and coat. It's pretty frost here sometimes too. It's just different now. You know what I mean? My little red rubber boots went the way of my innocent spirit. I don't own any snow pants either. In fact, I'm not even sure they still sell them. Nuns don't frighten me any more. We get blizzards here too. Big ones. But I'm a bit too old to jump off the roof.

Or am I? Maybe I'll go find myself a pair of red rubber boots and give it a shot next time we get dumped on by the white fluffy stuff.

Ahhhh, memories....