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Winter Delight

When the first snowflakes begin to fall, I run around squealing with delight, trying to catch the falling shapes on my tongue.  If a blanket of snow covers the ground, I throw myself onto my back and move my arms and legs up and down to make a snow angel. As soon as the freezing temperatures become reliable, the mayor has the baseball diamond flooded to make an outdoor rink.  It seems like everyone in town has a pair of skates and I rush to be the first one onto the freshly hardened,  g listening sheet of ice. The ice looks perfect until my skates carve little lines all over it. On another day, I call my friends and we meet at the hill with our toboggans.   It’s a challenge each year to avoid the trees and to stay out of the river at the bottom of the hill.   The river is frozen over, but who knows how solid it is. The next day, I grab Grandpa’s old wooden snow shoes and tramp around the meadow above our house. No grazing bulls around to chase me this t...

She Loves Me

My mother says that I should take time in life to smell the roses, but when I stop to smell the flowers on the way to school she tells me not to dawdle. My mother says to always sit up straight and tall, but when we go to the movies she tells me to slouch down in my seat so the people behind us can see the screen. My mother says to be friendly and well-mannered toward others, yet she tells me not to talk to strangers. My mother says not to hesitate to ask questions, yet she tells me to hush up when she is having a conversation with another person. My mother often says that I look perfect as we rush out the door, yet she tells me that aiming to be perfect is not a healthy mindset. My mother says not to be afraid of spiders, yet the other day when we found a huge black one dangling from her wardrobe she screamed. My mother says things like "the early bird gets the worm" and "early to bed and early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise...

Peter and the Silver Coins

One cool, cloudy day I was walking home from school behind a hunched-over, little old lady. She walked slowly and used a cane. On her head she wore a large, orange, floppy hat decorated all over with red maple leaves. I slowed down to stay well back from her because Mama always told me not to walk quickly up to old people as I might scare, or startle, them. Before my very eyes, coins started falling from the pockets of the hunched-over, little old lady. Lots and lots of silver coins tumbled out.  Like a shiny spring shower they sprinkled onto the sidewalk and glistened in front of me.  There were piles of them.  I’d never seen so many coins; not even when Papa rolled the coins, from our spare change bucket, into thin paper tubes. The hunched-over, little old lady hobbled along in front of me.  She didn’t seem to notice that her coins were falling onto the sidewalk.  I didn’t think I should call out to her, or run after her, because I didn’t want ...