Growing Up in North Dakota

And, I know I’ve told you before about why I never learned to ice skate when I lived in snow country. It was just too cold! The ice rinks were outdoor rinks, often with little huts where you could sit to change from your snow boots to your ice skates. But what always happened to me was that by the time I got my skates on, I was too cold already to spend much time at all on the ice practicing my skating. In Hope, my next door neighbors had an icy driveway and we’d play hockey on the driveway. We all had our own hockey stick and multiple pucks. We also would build snow forts on either side of their driveway and play snowball war. I think it was in Hope too that

there was a snow hill (probably created by the snow plow in town) right next to the school, and we’d play “King of the Hill” during recess.

I also want to tell you about Lake Metigoshe and our fun times there. Uncle Freeman’s cabin wasn’t anything like ours. It was a simple wooden structure with three rooms, a living/kitchen area and two bedrooms. There was no plasterboard inside, just the inside of the wooden construction, and there was no running water, so, obviously there was no bathroom. The outhouse was just out back and I think we probably simply “bathed” in the lake. The kitchen, I believe, had a hand