Saturday, December 1, 2018

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Favorite Winter Activity Growing Up

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):


1)  Winter arrives this month all over the northern hemisphere, and the daily routines of work, education and play change along with the seasons.  

2)  What were your favorite winter activities when you were a child and teenager and young adult?

3)  Share your memories on your own blog post, in a Facebook post, or in a comment on this post.  Please leave a link as a comment on this post if you write your own blog post so that everyone can read all about it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic.

Here's mine:

Winter in San Diego usually means mostly sunny skies, cooler temperatures, and occasional rainy days.  The rain is welcome because of the wildfire danger, and because our average yearly rainfall is about 10 inches.  Sine years we get 3 inches, some years we get 20 inches, but those are rare events.

It has snowed in San Diego near sea level twice in my lifetime - in January 1949 and in December 1967.  It was exciting - something we rarely see.  Each time, the snow melted almost immediately and never froze overnight.  It only snows at sea level here if a weather front comes through after a clear cold night.  The record low in San Diego (downtown) is 25F which occurred in 1923.  Early morning temperatures in the high 30s are fairly common each year in January and February.  We occasionally get hail when a storm hits quickly in the winter and spring.  

I  remember only a few times that we went to the local mountains (30 miles away, usually to the Julian or Pine Valley areas at about 4,000 feet) when I was under 20 years old.  My father never wanted to take us to the snow.  I think that brother Stan and I went with the church youth group in the late 1950s to the snow and frolicked (threw snowballs) and slid down a hill (on a stiff plastic sheet (?)) and that was fun and cold.  We really didn't have cold weather clothes and boots, and I remember being really cold on the trip back to town.

The two week Christmas vacations were always fun, because we usually received gifts from our parents and grandparents that were sports and outdoor related.  We played football in the middle of 30th street, we went down to Grape Street park to play with friends, we rode our bicycles over to Balboa Park and the zoo and museums, and explored the streets and canyons of San Diego. 

In short, winter activities were not unlike spring and fall weekend activities, but it was cooler, and rarely white.


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Copyright (c) 2018, Randall J. Seaver

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3 comments:

Debbe in Northern Nevada said...

I remember that Dec 1967 snow.

The neighbor lady, whose turn it was that week to drive us kids from Birdland to Montgomery Jr. High, called my (Massachusetts-raised) mother in a hysterical panic, refusing to drive in a blizzard! After some laughter, Mom ending up taking us all in what was just a light drizzle.

Thanks for the memories...

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

I do remember some rain, snow, and fog. https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2018/12/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-favorite.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

Until 1989, my winters were spent in generally warm-weather locations.

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2018/12/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-favorite.html