From winter in years gone by to today, my how things have changed

The way we experience winter has certainly changed as the years have gone by.

Many of us have upgraded from shovels to snow blowers, and we no longer have to walk uphill both ways to school, but some things will always remain the same. I polled a few Atlantic Canadians to find out what their favourite winter activities were as kids.

Queenie, who was born in 1939: “Skating on the creek and coasting.”

Elizabeth, born in 1963:

“Skating on the creek and drinking my mom’s delicious hot chocolate which I have never been able to recreate.”

Dave, born in 1964: “Sledding on the local hill and grabbing the bumpers of cars to see how far we could slide before we had to let go.”

Meg, born in 1966: “Sledding and building snowmen.” Sheri, born in 1969: “Sledding on crazy carpets and doing donuts in our VW bug with my dad.”

Candee, born in 1974: “Sledding, usually on a magic carpet. It was a blast until someone fell through the brook at the bottom of the hill and we’d have to go home.”

Lisa, born in 1977: “Sledding under the street lights with 30-40 other kids.”

Leanne, born in 1977: “My dad used to pull us on sleds behind his truck on old logging roads. One time, he was impressed we were still handing on at 60 kilometres per hour; another time, he didn’t realize we had fallen off and we were walking for a half hour before he came back.”

Dallas, born in 1978: “Definitely sledding, my dad would inflate giant inner tubes that could hold five adults.”

Melissa, born in 1983: “Once, the snow drifted so high we tobogganed off our roof.”

Nicole, born in 1984: “Rounding up the neighborhood kids to go sledding.”

Mandy, born in 1985: “Sledding, the plow used to make a huge hill on our yard.”

Laura, born in 1985: “Sledding on an old wooden sled my grandparents had.”

Rickie, born in 1986: “Then,

sledding and digging tunnels in the snow. Now, hibernating and Netflix.”

Katie, born in 1988: “Putting on my figure skating outfits and skating on the rink in our yard. Jumping off the front porch into huge snow piles and tobogganing.”

Jana, born in 1991: “Finding amazing hills to sled on and making cash from shoveling on snow days.”

Nicole, born in 1992: “Sledding for sure, that’s all we did as kids in the winter.”

Paige, born in 1995: “Crazy carpet sledding and building snow forts. Now, I love winter hikes and snowshoeing.”

Renee, born in 1996: “Sledding, skating, making snow forts, building snowmen.”

Julia, born in 1997: “Sledding, wrestling with my dogs after the first big snowfall.”

Abbey, born in 2004: “Building snowmen and sledding with the neighbours.”

Luke, born in 2007: “Outdoor

hockey.” Tucker, born in 2009: “Outdoor hockey.” Ellie, born in 2012: “Skating outside on the pond in my back yard.”

Henry, born in 2018: “Cutting ice like Kristoff in frozen.” (But that’s just because he hasn’t tried sledding yet).

Skating comes in at a close second, but whether you call it sledding, coasting, or tobogganing, this downhill winter activity still reigns supreme.

“Sledding on the local hill and grabbing the bumpers of cars to see how far we could slide before we had to let go.”

Dave, born in 1964