A Wintry Adventure

A Walk Down to Pratt Beach

The snow is falling and I am drawn outside. Into the wind and the white soft flakes. The wind is not cold and the snow feels me with a peace I’ve known since I was a child in Hyde Park living across from Farmer’s Field. Walking through the trees this day I am reminded of a wintry night when I was eight. It was midnight maybe later. I just knew it was way past my bedtime. My twin, Laura and I had been asleep, when our favorite baby sitter Mary Jo and her big sister Ann Marie woke us up and took us out to the park for an adventure. I didn’t know what was going to happen as I put on my warm boots and scarf. My heart was pounding with excitement. We lived across the street from Farmer’s Field a big open park with lots of wide open spaces to run around. That night the air was cold to the cheek, but I felt warm inside. Laura and I found ourselves in a line with other kids and teenagers. At the count of something, we ran screaming and laughing across the field. It was so thrilling to me. I felt alive. I felt glad to be apart of it. Not too little anymore to have adventures in the middle of the night. We skated across the frozen basketball and four square court and had a massive snowball fight before we returned safely home. That night stays with me. The feeling of being welcomed by these fun older teens, doing something bold and exciting on a wintry night, being a child but wanting to be older.

Mom welcomed us back with hot coco and questions of “What did you do. girls?” Laura and I just looked at each other and smiled and said “it was fun”. We wanted it to be our secret. We were older now some how and didn’t have to tell our mom everything.

The next year we moved away from Farmer’s Field. Life changed. But that feeling of adventures in the snow draws me out on days like this. Walking to Pratt Beach, I was thankful to the snow, my sister Laura, Mary Jo, my mom and a moment when I was eight that changed me.