It was a typical warm snowy day that I watched children equipped, with various plastic contraptions ranging from saucers to streerable sleds, sliding down the hillside.

         As I turned to leave, a ratty piece of cardboard in the snow bank snapped me back
to my elementary school days in Northern Manitoba.

        A large long smooth rocky knoll rose at the far end of the schoolyard. During the winter recesses and noon hours, it provided a great source of entertainment. Its face soon became a polished sheet of ice from kids sliding down on a piece of cardboard.

        When the bell went it was a race to obtain one of the identifiable ‘good pieces’ that
still had some wear in it.

         The Hudson Bay Company store was right across the road. Once in a while, a ‘big kid’ would nip across to the garbage area, grab an appliance box, and drag it back to the school yard where it was soon shredded into suitable pieces.

         Everyone knew the routine. You walked up the outside, waited patiently in line, and then slid down. There was an unwritten rule of politeness as everyone took turns, laughing when some sliders bumped into others at the bottom.

        Fortunately we lived at a time when adults had the common sense to let the children play, experience bumps and thumps, and learn to solve their own problems.
                                                 
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