My Two Writing Teachers colleagues and I are hosting the 13th Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge, in which hundreds of teachers participate in posting a story per day.
Dear Kids,
After our school stuff was all finished, Lily and I drove up to the mountain. It snowed a few inches last night, so we were both really excited to skin up and ski the fresh snow. We planned to meet one of her friends from school and his dad, and do the hike together (keeping six feet distance of separation).
Lily and I pulled into the parking lot at Morse, the smaller mountain, and got out of the car. A security truck pulled up next to us. “Hey,” the man driving the truck said, “Nobody’s here, if you want, you can park right up next to the trail.”
So, we hopped back in the car and drove up to the trail. The road wasn’t plowed yet, but my station wagon had no trouble making it up the hill. When we got to the top, I stopped and put the car in reverse to try to straighten it out for parking. But the car wouldn’t move. The wheels were just spinning on ice underneath the fresh snow. We were stuck.
I was laughing, but in my head I had vivid memories of my mom, your grandmother. Your grandma took us skiing in all kinds of weather, no matter what, and our car would often get stuck in the snow or spin on the ice. Your grandmother did NOT laugh when her car was stuck. Instead she would become very angry and strict, and expected us kids to be perfectly silent. I have one memory of her putting her forehead down on the steering wheel and punching the dashboard out of frustration, and scaring the pants off my brother (your uncle) and me sitting in the backseat.
Today, however, I laughed at how ridiculous our situation was. How had my car so easily climbed the hill, but was so completely stuck on top of it? Luckily right at that moment, a snowboarder just happened to be coming down the trail. He gave us a push, we got unstuck pretty easily, and we went back to our original parking spot.
Lily and I hopped out of the car again and started to put on our equipment as if nothing had happened, but the whole time I was remembering my mom punching the dashboard. And I remembered another time when we kids had to get out and push the car ourselves - we couldn’t have been older than Lily is now. And another time when our car spun around and got stuck in a snowbank. And another time when it slid backward into a snowbank on a famously steep road and we had to just sit and wait on a below-zero night, hoping for a snowplow to come along while my mom cried — she never cried and thankfully a plow truck did come along because to this day I think we might very well have frozen to death if it had not.
As Lily and I put our ski boots on, my phone started to buzz. It was Lily’s friend’s dad. They were parked at the big mountain, wondering where we were. Lily had never climbed the big mountain, so I let her decide if we should stay or if we should drive up the road to the big mountain. She chose the big mountain! I was so proud of her.
We drove up to the big mountain, climbed it, skied down it, and the memories of bad car incidents faded away. But, kids, I want you to know that sometimes, what you see me doing and saying on the outside might not always match what I’m thinking and feeling on the inside.
I love you both so much.
Love,
Your Mom