If you were a kid in Rutland back in the 50s, how did you spend your winter?
I will guarantee you that it wasn’t spent inside looking at a digital device!
We were outside for the majority of the day even if was snowing. There is an expression that goes “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!” Our mothers knew how to dress us for any kind of weather.
I grew up on a street that had about a dozen kids in the neighborhood. There was always someone to play with. We never telephoned one another we just knocked on our friends’ doors and asked them to come out. There was never a refusal to our invitation for some fun!
If the snow was sticky it was time to build a snowman. Parents found scarves, hats and carrots missing as we made our snowman come to life. While the girls were doing that the boys were building forts from big balls of snow. Such simple things kept us busy for hours on end.
Many of the streets around Howard Avenue were not developed in those days. The terrain was hilly in places which meant great sledding. We loved going from Howard down to Easterly via the current Taft Avenue which had no houses on it back then. The top section of Easterly had a hill that went down into Piedmont. That was another great place to go sledding.
Our sleds were wooden with ropes on the front to drag them back up the hill so we could slide down it once again. On the cold days our mothers put so many layers of clothes on us that it was difficult to get on and off the sleds. They made sure that we weren’t cold!
A round silver-colored metal coaster was another popular option for sliding down the hills. You held onto straps as you coasted down. You could steer a little by shifting your body weight but it was pretty much a “straight down” event. The icier the snow, the faster we went!
My father made me a wooden “jack jumper” which is basically a short ski with a seat attached to it that sits on a post. The ski was handmade by him. As I kid I didn’t realize how talented and creative my father was. Everyone wanted to give the jack jumper a try.
We didn’t have to leave our street to ice skate. Warren and Eleanor Goodrich flooded their side yard and make a rink for us. It was lighted at night. As kids we didn’t realize how lucky we were to be able to gather there. Now we can appreciate the fun times they provided for us.
If you wanted to enjoy public skating the place to go was Rotary Rink on North Street. The warming area was on the bottom level and you could skate right up to the door from the rink. The skaters had to go in one direction as music played through the speakers. There was a concession stand that the late Senator Jim Jeffords manned in his teenage years.
You could even ski without leaving Rutland. The Country Club had a 525-foot hill with a rope tow. Lessons were offered for both children and adults. Olympian Suzy Chaffee and her brother, Rick, spent some time on that hill. Mittens didn’t last long if you rode the tow frequently. I remember my parents would drop me off with a friend and tell me what time they would be back to get us. No cell phones in those days so you couldn’t call when you needed a ride. Bill Reardon from the Rutland Recreation Department ran the lift and was assisted by Pat Canty who was a student at Castleton State College. If anyone needed to make a call they had to go down the hill to the Country Club and use the landline phone.
We were never bored with sledding and skating in our own neighborhood and the opportunity to ski without leaving Rutland. What more could a kid ask for?
