Olympic Fun

There was a day when we held our own olympics in our own neighborhood. Everything about me and my siblings and my friends was competitive. These were the days that the real olympics was held at Squaw Valley, California. There was always plenty of snow. That's just the way TV was back then.

After it rained on the hard packed snow, we had our luge run. And it was fast and just as dangerous. We used our sleds with the steel runners, ran at the top of the hill and dived onto the sled headfirst as we got to the crown of the hill. The object was not to time the run.... the winner went the furthest, which probably meant the fastest. We streaked down the ice covered hill, jumped a road at the bottom and continued down into the cattails. It was always obvious who went the furthest.

The next event was the toboggan jump. We made a 3 to 4 foot high jump by shoveling and packing snow. Then we'd pour hot water on it to firm it up. And we were ready. The object was to see who could jump the toboggan the furthest. We had one man, two man, and three man teams, and one 6' toboggan that lasted only about one season. The most dangerous position was either first (driver) or last. The last guy seldom made it down the hill as his tailbone would smack down on the hard snow upon landing off from the jump. The front guy (driver) often got creamed if the toboggan nose dived. The others would not so gently land on top of him. The wooden toboggan would end up on top of us all. And, hey, who needed a helmet? We were tough. We were Olympians.

The last event was figure skating. For this we went to the local rink where there was a warming house. I always won this event because I was the only skater who could to the waltz jump, flip jump, lutz, and the axel. I could spin, too. So they changed the competition to playing it. The idea was to be it and the guy who tagged you became it. The winner was always the last one to be it. The warming house manager asked us to not be so rough.

I think, at heart, every kid is an Olympian. At night, instead of seeing Lindsay Vonn speeding down the hill for gold, we see ourselves. Instead of Apollo Ohno, it's us. We become our heroes. Just like the little boy that dresses up like Batman or Spiderman, we imagine ourselves to be our heroes. We are all Olympians.

The next olympic event is the snow shoveling competition. You got it! It just finished snowing.