First "Roots" Story

A long held exaggeration that parents have told their children is the one about how they had to walk miles and miles through snow storms and go through 10 foot drifts just to get to their one room school. I'm sure I'm not the only who has heard this story from my parents when I didn't want to rush out the door to catch the bus for school on a cold and blustery winter day. But it seems that my dad wasn't really exaggerating. Dad grew up in the little village of Spring Lake and really did attend a one room school. This spot on the map just happens to be in an area that gets hammered every winter with massive "lake effect snow" and I've seem with my own eyes the snow drifts that reached my grandparents garage roof when we'd visit them around Christmas each year. I can just see my dad pulling along an old wooden sled that his two younger brothers sat on for at least part of the trek to and from school. Trudging through the whipping wind and snow with a red and black "hunter cap", a hand knitted woolen scarf wrapped around his face, a couple of pairs of woolen mittens layered on his hands and marching along in the dark of early morning to make it to school. What a brave kid. I'd be afraid that I'd get lost in one of those snow drifts, or fall into a snow covered ditch. But not him. He just trudged through it all to make sure he and his brothers got there. But that has been him all along. Just keep going, no matter what you have to go through - because it's not always easy, to get where you are going.

Getting Started

Maybe this one will be the one that I keep up with. :)