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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Family & Friends
- Subject: Childhood / Youth
- Published: 02/06/2021
A Winter's Tale
Born 1948, F, from Epping. Essex, United KingdomA Winter’s Tale
(Two points of view)
By Kristin Dockar
1
I remember the Winter of 1962-1963 when it snowed and snowed. It was one of the worst winters on record. We were five children living in a tiny village in the middle of the Essex countryside. The countryside was our playground. Trees to climb, hills to run up and down and hedges that we used to build our dens. But that Winter changed the landscape into a different kind of snowy playground.
Our house had no central heating and I remember that every morning the inside of our bedroom window was covered in fantastic ice patterns.
I was just seven years old. My brother was nine and my eldest sister was 11. She was a complete horror, always up to something and devising ever more daring and dangerous things for us to do.
Our Mum was an artist and was perfectly happy for us to spend our days out and about enjoying the snow. We just needed to be home for mealtimes. Because the snowdrifts blocked the lanes, we could not get to school. There was only one bus a day to get us there and one in the late afternoon to get us home. These restrictions went on for weeks. The snow and ice just didn’t thaw. We were so happy. No school. Every day was another adventure.
One day we discovered that the pond across the field had frozen over. Perfect. My sister devised a game that involved making a slide from one side of the pond to the other. This time she led us into real danger. In fact, she could have killed me. I was so little, and followed my siblings into anything, never wanting to be left behind.
The slide went from one side of the pond to the other and we happily skidded and slid across the ice. The main game was to see who could slide the farthest across the pond.
It came to my turn and off I went. Suddenly I heard a crack, and the next thing I had fallen through the ice into the freezing cold water. Even now, all these years later, I can remember the shock of the ice-cold water and the horrible feeling of panic. I was screaming and crying, all at the same time. I was so frightened. I couldn’t breathe.
My big sister was really quick thinking. She slid across the ice on her front, lying flat, then she made my brother lay behind her and hold her legs. She was able to reach me and pulled me out. I was terrified, screaming and crying, but she wrapped me in her coat and together my siblings hurried me back across the field and home.
My mum quickly took the situation in and without saying a word, she carried me upstairs and ran a hot bath. Only when I was warm and dry, did she ask what had happened. We all said we were just playing around the edge of the pond and I slipped. I never ‘told’ on my sister.
2.
As the older, sensible sister, that is certainly not how I remember it. I had cautiously tested the ice and told my siblings that the ice was thin in the middle of the pond. I knew it would not hold our weight. My younger sister was a real pain. She spent her life trying to get us into trouble.
We were all so excited when we realised the pond had frozen over. Here was another adventure. My brother and I set about making a wonderful slide round the edge of the pond. We were so enjoying ourselves sliding about. Falling over was cause for much hilarity.
We were so engrossed that we didn’t notice my sister was sliding across the pond until we heard the worst sound in the world, a crack, followed by a shriek, and saw my sister had fallen through the ice.
I laid myself down on the ice and pushed myself carefully over to my little sister. My brother followed and held onto my legs. We reached her and pulled her out and back to the edge of the pond, and safety. We were all crying, shocked and terrified.
We got her home as quickly as we could, but our biggest fear now was how we were going to explain to our mum. As ever she was calm, dealt with the practicalities of getting my sister bathed, then warm and dry, and then asked for an explanation.
Afterwards, we laughed when our dad took us back over to the pond and showed us that the water was so shallow in the middle of the pond that my sister could have stood up and walked out.
You would think that this event would have made us more sensible, but we were adventurous children.
Just up the lane from where we lived was a huge Dutch barn stacked high with straw bales. We loved climbing up to the top of the bales and then frightening ourselves by crawling through the tunnels made by gaps in how the bales were stacked. If I think of it now, it was so, so dangerous.
But that is another story!
A Winter's Tale(Kristin Dockar)
A Winter’s Tale
(Two points of view)
By Kristin Dockar
1
I remember the Winter of 1962-1963 when it snowed and snowed. It was one of the worst winters on record. We were five children living in a tiny village in the middle of the Essex countryside. The countryside was our playground. Trees to climb, hills to run up and down and hedges that we used to build our dens. But that Winter changed the landscape into a different kind of snowy playground.
Our house had no central heating and I remember that every morning the inside of our bedroom window was covered in fantastic ice patterns.
I was just seven years old. My brother was nine and my eldest sister was 11. She was a complete horror, always up to something and devising ever more daring and dangerous things for us to do.
Our Mum was an artist and was perfectly happy for us to spend our days out and about enjoying the snow. We just needed to be home for mealtimes. Because the snowdrifts blocked the lanes, we could not get to school. There was only one bus a day to get us there and one in the late afternoon to get us home. These restrictions went on for weeks. The snow and ice just didn’t thaw. We were so happy. No school. Every day was another adventure.
One day we discovered that the pond across the field had frozen over. Perfect. My sister devised a game that involved making a slide from one side of the pond to the other. This time she led us into real danger. In fact, she could have killed me. I was so little, and followed my siblings into anything, never wanting to be left behind.
The slide went from one side of the pond to the other and we happily skidded and slid across the ice. The main game was to see who could slide the farthest across the pond.
It came to my turn and off I went. Suddenly I heard a crack, and the next thing I had fallen through the ice into the freezing cold water. Even now, all these years later, I can remember the shock of the ice-cold water and the horrible feeling of panic. I was screaming and crying, all at the same time. I was so frightened. I couldn’t breathe.
My big sister was really quick thinking. She slid across the ice on her front, lying flat, then she made my brother lay behind her and hold her legs. She was able to reach me and pulled me out. I was terrified, screaming and crying, but she wrapped me in her coat and together my siblings hurried me back across the field and home.
My mum quickly took the situation in and without saying a word, she carried me upstairs and ran a hot bath. Only when I was warm and dry, did she ask what had happened. We all said we were just playing around the edge of the pond and I slipped. I never ‘told’ on my sister.
2.
As the older, sensible sister, that is certainly not how I remember it. I had cautiously tested the ice and told my siblings that the ice was thin in the middle of the pond. I knew it would not hold our weight. My younger sister was a real pain. She spent her life trying to get us into trouble.
We were all so excited when we realised the pond had frozen over. Here was another adventure. My brother and I set about making a wonderful slide round the edge of the pond. We were so enjoying ourselves sliding about. Falling over was cause for much hilarity.
We were so engrossed that we didn’t notice my sister was sliding across the pond until we heard the worst sound in the world, a crack, followed by a shriek, and saw my sister had fallen through the ice.
I laid myself down on the ice and pushed myself carefully over to my little sister. My brother followed and held onto my legs. We reached her and pulled her out and back to the edge of the pond, and safety. We were all crying, shocked and terrified.
We got her home as quickly as we could, but our biggest fear now was how we were going to explain to our mum. As ever she was calm, dealt with the practicalities of getting my sister bathed, then warm and dry, and then asked for an explanation.
Afterwards, we laughed when our dad took us back over to the pond and showed us that the water was so shallow in the middle of the pond that my sister could have stood up and walked out.
You would think that this event would have made us more sensible, but we were adventurous children.
Just up the lane from where we lived was a huge Dutch barn stacked high with straw bales. We loved climbing up to the top of the bales and then frightening ourselves by crawling through the tunnels made by gaps in how the bales were stacked. If I think of it now, it was so, so dangerous.
But that is another story!
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Kevin Hughes
03/16/2021Aloha Kristin,
As you can see from the thread...everyone took some time to visit their own childhoods. I , too, had narrow escapes from the ice and saved my brother Mike after he broke through the ice once. I wrote a story about how, as an Adult in his sixties, I walked out onto a lake hundreds of yard from shore before I realized I wasn't on the beach. That was a long slow scary walk back to land. Nobody would have found the body until the spring thaw.
So it isn't only kids who have to survive bad choices. LOL
Lovely, memory lane is wide open because of your story...just read the comments! And congrats on a well earned StoryStar Award!
Smiles, Kevin
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Kristin Dockar
03/16/2021Thank you Kevin. Yes, that story seemed to make readers think back to childhood madness!! As we speak I am doing an on line course about William Wordsworth. I was bored to tears by his poetry when I was at school, but now I'm learning that his poetry was based on his childhood and I totally 'get it'! Just proves you're never to old to learn!!
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Helsa
03/16/2021Aww! The Childhood adventures we make! I had a great ton of fun in my childhood too! Well Written! Regards;
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Kristin Dockar
03/16/2021Thank you Helsa, Yes, I was lucky with my childhood and all my siblings. We were such a tight knit group and we certainly had a lot of adventures.
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Help Us Understand What's Happening
Kristin Dockar
02/25/2021Thank you. I think this story must have reminded many of us of our childhood!
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Gerald R Gioglio
02/25/2021Nice Kristin. Boy did that bring back several memories of childhood adventures gone bad. Yup, heaven knows how some of us made it to adulthood! Thanks for doing this. Jerry
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
Kristin Dockar
02/25/2021It really makes me think about my grandchildren who simply don't have the freedom we had to take risks.....and survive. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Sylvia Maclagan
02/25/2021Wow, Kristin, what adventurous children you were! Nearly frozen to death twice. Funny how it turned out to be shallow the second time...
Events like these are never forgotten. I remember every time I fell off a horse. And other stuff I will not mention here.
Apart from feeling frozen just from reading your childhood experiences, happy story star of the day! Best wishes, Sylvia
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Sylvia Maclagan
02/25/2021I also shudder, Kristin. My brother was terrible, drove my parents nuts...lol.
Best wishes, Sylvia
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Kristin Dockar
02/25/2021Thank you Sylvia. I must admit I shudder when I remember some of the things we did,
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Agata Montoya
02/25/2021OMG Kristin! This story literally left me frozen, it is incredible how two points of view can create two totally different stories, Congratulations and happy short story star of the day!
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Kristin Dockar
02/25/2021Thank you. Even now my sister disputes how I've written about the event but I point out that at least she lives to tell the tale!
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JD
02/24/2021It is always so interesting to me the way one event can be seen in so many different ways by those who 'witnessed' it. Thanks for sharing the different perspectives on this in your own history and family, Kristin. And happy short story STAR of the day to you! :-)
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Thanh Nguyen
02/12/2021This story reminds me of my naughty childhood when I discovered everything with my siblings and friends. I really enjoyed your writing. Thank you for sharing.
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Kristin Dockar
02/12/2021Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yes, we were very adventurous children indeed!!
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Kristin Dockar
02/12/2021Thank you. It's very snowy here in the UK and it certainly reminded me of that Winter!!
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Gail Moore
02/06/2021All is well that ends well, how scary was that. Does it not make you wonder how a lot of us in the 40s 50s, and 60s even made it into adult life.
You told your story well. :-)
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Kristin Dockar
02/07/2021Thank you Gail. Yes, you're right....we were such wild children but we had the most incredible amount of freedom which when we look back, we all agree was just great! My grandchildren (5) just don't have that. The world is a very different place. Especially now, as their world has simply shrunk during the pandemic.
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JD
02/06/2021Thank heaven your sister and brother saved you and you did not suffer hypothermia after falling through the ice. How scary!
Even though the water was shallow, as you later discovered, it would not have prevented you from freezing and/or drowning, since you did not know it was shallow at the time you fell in. So I'm glad your story had a happy ending, Kristin! It was interesting to read you and your sister's different accounts and memories of the story! What does your brother remember?
Seems like we all experience the same events, whatever they are, in different ways, so that the actual truth is a combination of memories that help to piece together the facts. Thanks for sharing this true story from your life with us, Kristin! :-)
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Kristin Dockar
02/07/2021Thank you. It's snowing like mad here and that just reminded me of that Winter in our childhood. My brother just remembers being cold!!
COMMENTS (11)