Oh, the Thrill

Oh, the thrill of the annual school ice-skating races! Back in the days before recent warming trends good old Lincoln School (K-5), affectionately dubbed "Stinkin' Lncoln," held races for each class in the dead of winter, on an unforgivingly frigid Sunday in January---I don't know how they managed to pick the coldest day of the year, but they did! We kids, we contestants, so looked forward to that special Sunday, where we got to compete for a blue, for a red, or for a white ribbon; and for the adulation sure to be heaped upon us by proud family members... But those poor spectators, our parents and siblings who froze their fingers and toes off, if not their bottoms and tops, waiting out there in the howling cold 'forever' for an event that might take, oh, a minute or two at most--- And did I mention that I fell down, right on my face at the start of each race? For five years in a row? Until my very last race (5th grade), when---I fell at the end, just as I was about to cross the finish line first?...Yet it remains my most cherished memory of good old Lincoln School Entry for "My Youth" contest Sponsor: Craig Cornish