Winter seemed to take a long time passing in 1966.Actually I'm not certain it was any longer than most others but my perception was likely colored by the fact that I had a nice new shiny set of wheels in the basement.That tricycle I'd got for Christmas.Of course,I didn't have to wait to ride it,I just couldn't ride it outside.that never stopped me from riding in the basement.
Back then our basement was open,there were none of the walls there that are there now.It was just a single,big room with nothing much in it but the furnace and water heater at one end a few support posts in the middle.There were a few tools laying around too,and a n old wringer washer,but no dryer.And,of course,the hiding place for the cat,under the steps.So I could pretty much drive from one end to the other as fast as I could pedal.This did bring about a problem though.The floors were not painted and there was a lot of dust.It didn't take a lot to get the air perturbed to the point that there was a cloud of dust hanging down from the ceiling,and it got hard to breathe.So my father brought home a few cans of gray paint,about the color you would find on a battleship.And we all spent a morning painting the floor.Once it was painted,we couldn't go into the basement for a couple of days,and the cat had to stay upstairs,which rather annoyed her.But,once the paint had dried,we could tear around down in the basement all day and it would never get dusty.The smell of fresh paint replaced the previous dusty,musty scent of the basement too,so it was a much nicer place to be.My father had not really done much in the way of improvements since we'd moved in,and 1966 turned out to be the year that the basement got upgraded.
Meanwhile,up the street at the babysitters,I was finding out that the sitters older daughter could be half decent some of the time.Not often though.I do recall that she was the one that taught us how to make snow angels though,by laying down and doing jumping jacks in the snow while in the horizontal position.There was a lot of wet heavy snow the first time I'd ever done that,and I remember watching some of the neighbors up on the roofs pushing off snow with shovels.It was one of those heavy snowfalls that Moncton is prone to getting at times.We made a snowman too,a big snowman,pretty much the same as most snowmen,until the two older kids decided to make some changes.The girl put a cigarette in it's mouth,and the boy removed the big carrot nose and replaced it about a foot and a half further down.I remember seeing a lot of snowmen like that back then,all anatomically correct,sort of,with cigarettes and pipes,and even one with a cigar.
Finally all the snow was gone,though the weather stayed cold for a while.It seemed we were going of with the sitters oldest daughter to fetch smokes a lot that winter.One particular day I recall it being quite warm and foggy,but there was still a lot of snow on the ground.Every other day all winter long,it seemed we were off to the store for cigarettes.But finally it started to get nice out,and I could bring my new wheels outside.
Back then our basement was open,there were none of the walls there that are there now.It was just a single,big room with nothing much in it but the furnace and water heater at one end a few support posts in the middle.There were a few tools laying around too,and a n old wringer washer,but no dryer.And,of course,the hiding place for the cat,under the steps.So I could pretty much drive from one end to the other as fast as I could pedal.This did bring about a problem though.The floors were not painted and there was a lot of dust.It didn't take a lot to get the air perturbed to the point that there was a cloud of dust hanging down from the ceiling,and it got hard to breathe.So my father brought home a few cans of gray paint,about the color you would find on a battleship.And we all spent a morning painting the floor.Once it was painted,we couldn't go into the basement for a couple of days,and the cat had to stay upstairs,which rather annoyed her.But,once the paint had dried,we could tear around down in the basement all day and it would never get dusty.The smell of fresh paint replaced the previous dusty,musty scent of the basement too,so it was a much nicer place to be.My father had not really done much in the way of improvements since we'd moved in,and 1966 turned out to be the year that the basement got upgraded.
Meanwhile,up the street at the babysitters,I was finding out that the sitters older daughter could be half decent some of the time.Not often though.I do recall that she was the one that taught us how to make snow angels though,by laying down and doing jumping jacks in the snow while in the horizontal position.There was a lot of wet heavy snow the first time I'd ever done that,and I remember watching some of the neighbors up on the roofs pushing off snow with shovels.It was one of those heavy snowfalls that Moncton is prone to getting at times.We made a snowman too,a big snowman,pretty much the same as most snowmen,until the two older kids decided to make some changes.The girl put a cigarette in it's mouth,and the boy removed the big carrot nose and replaced it about a foot and a half further down.I remember seeing a lot of snowmen like that back then,all anatomically correct,sort of,with cigarettes and pipes,and even one with a cigar.
Finally all the snow was gone,though the weather stayed cold for a while.It seemed we were going of with the sitters oldest daughter to fetch smokes a lot that winter.One particular day I recall it being quite warm and foggy,but there was still a lot of snow on the ground.Every other day all winter long,it seemed we were off to the store for cigarettes.But finally it started to get nice out,and I could bring my new wheels outside.
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