Kids and snow are a dangerous combination

Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

I'm not tired of the snow yet, but I have to say it was a lot more fun when I was younger.

When you're a kid, you don't have to worry about getting to work, clearing the snow off your car, dodging all the idiots on the roads or making sure no one suffers a slip-and-fall injury on your stretch of sidewalk. You just bundle up, go outside, play until your extremities are numb, then come back inside leaving a trail of slush and damp outergarments while demanding hot chocolate.

And, I have to say, though I enjoy Southern Maryland tremendously, the topography leaves something to be desired in the hill department. I remember sledding spots in Tennessee that were terrifying, mountainous slopes, slicked with inches of ice that would regularly send hordes of maimed, battered children to the hospital, begging to be put out of their misery. Back then, see, gravity was a lot stronger and … well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. I do remember a hill the safe passage of which involved successfully jumping over a creek channeled in a tasteful flagstone culvert. If you didn't make the jump, it was headfirst (only sissies of the highest level of sissyness and the least adventurous girls went down sitting up) into the stone wall, with an immediate splashdown into the icy waters below. "How," our mothers would inquire, "did you get so wet? It's like you went swimming!" To which we should shrug nonchalantly and secretly muse on how close they were to the truth.

I don't see kids sledding on the street, either. Our best hills were on streets plunging an eighth of a mile or more down the side of a stream valley, the kind of streets where all the folks who live at the bottom, who have to be at work no matter what, park at the top so they won't get stuck.

There were hair-raising scenes of near-carnage occasionally when some foolish adult, usually in a rare (for those days) four-wheel-drive vehicle, would have the temerity to try to actually drive on one of our sacred hills and nearly crush some pint-sized daredevil. They would get out, blanching nearly as white as the surrounding yards, half-petrified with fear at having nearly killed their neighbors' 9-year-old and try to yell at us, to which we generally replied with a load of guff and the odd snowball.

Sledding on the street also entails an interesting range of scratches and dents to the lower portions of cars parked on those streets, including, as I recall, a dome-shaped mark in a bumper that required an actual trip to the emergency room for my younger sister (she was fine; sprained neck, no problem).

Our winter sins also included animal cruelty, as we discovered that most household Worthless Dogs are not as interested in pulling a sled as the magnificent beasts in "Call of the Wild," and those that are, are not much interested in stopping, nor do they care about the health of their passengers; testing fate by walking closer and closer to the open ice at the center of the adjoining golf course pond; and throwing snowballs at cars, the most memorable issue of which was when we hit the car of an off-duty police officer, whose tenacity and physical fitness came as a grave surprise.

As usual, I am overcome with a sense of wonder, when I look back at my younger years, that we did not get more seriously injured than the occasional broken bone or laceration that we did get.

My perfect daughters get enough danger on the farm, what with power tools, horse companions and the tractor, but I prefer that they perform safer, more cultural activities such as the one mentioned (yes, we go careening down the slope straight into a dangerous segue) in the item below.

Auditions for kids' choir coming up

Boys and girls in second grade and above who like to sing can audition for the Schubert Singers children's choir by contacting Angela Garvey at 301-392-1051 or ChristChurchMusic@verizon.net.

The singers learn and perform folk songs, spirituals, rounds and music by classical and contemporary composers that is especially suited to young voices, according to a release from choir organizers. They are taught how to sing with a lovely tone, to read music and to work together to create musical beauty. Co-directors of the ensemble are Garvey, Alicia Cordelle and Paula FitzGerald.

Auditions will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Feb. 9 at Christ Church at 112 E. Charles St. in La Plata and from 6 to 7p.m. Feb. 11 at Old Durham Church at 8685 Ironsides Road in Nanjemoy.

Interested singers will participate in a short rehearsal, then sing in pairs for the directors, who will be listening for the ability to match pitch. Singers making successful auditions will rehearse in La Plata or in Nanjemoy beginning Feb. 16 to get ready for spring concerts the third week of May.

The cost is $25 per child, with additional children in the same family $15.

Job fair registration begins

Employer registration is under way for the College of Southern Maryland's annual Tri-County Job and Career Fair at the La Plata campus April 8. Businesses from all over Southern Maryland will be recruiting students and community residents for job openings as well as advising on future career opportunities and internships within their organizations.

Employers who register will be provided with an 8-foot draped booth, a 6-foot draped table, two chairs and a sign. Light refreshments will be provided. Registration received by Feb. 25 is $225.

Registration after Feb. 25 is $275.

For information on employer registration, go to www.csmd.edu/CareerServices/Employers/fair.html or 301-934-7574.

jdavis@somdnews.com