Waiting for spring, and finding entertaining things to do in the meantime
There's no place like home. This is true of Kansas or Kyrgyzstan, and our hometown of Chico as well.
Before the days of social media, video game consoles or even printed books, people managed to entertain themselves with the resources they had available.
My dad would sometimes joke about how easy it is to give gifts to young children. A toddler, for example, might open a box containing a new toy and spend as much time playing with the box as he does playing with the toy.
When I visited a small museum in Kyrgyzstan with my friends Dinara and Asel, we saw a display of chuko bones in a wooden tray. (The bones are from the spine of a ram, and painted different colors). Asel recognized the game from her childhood and quickly showed us how it worked (It's a little like jacks and a little like pickup sticks). Other close-tohand resources can be identified for corn husk dolls, footballs made of pig's bladders and most winter sports involving snow.
If we think of cricket, which is becoming a big deal in the United States, the main resources for the game include Wood, leather and open space — all which were available in England in the 16th Century.
Part of my ancestral lineage leads back to Minnesota, and when my mom moved to the Midwest I got a taste of what those relatives do for fun. Winter blows in across the mostly flat plains and people get excited about winter sports. Mom and I traveled to her little cabin by one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. We could see our breath as we walked from the front porch, bundled in wool and wearing sensible boots. Our journey was to take a thermos of warm liquid to the man sitting in a wooden box, (not too much different than an outhouse), watching a circle that had been carved in the ice.
Ice fishing.
Not too exciting. Yet,
I'll admit the quiet I felt that day was memorable. Something about cold and white and quiet can do something to your brain in a good way. However, 20 minutes of ice fishing is enough for this California girl.
Another day I tried mom's cross country skis, which took 40 minutes in preparation and was fun for about 20 minutes. I realized I was exercising and could do this without the skis and poles and mittens. Most children in these icy areas of the country learn to ice skate soon after they can walk, which naturally leads to ice hockey.
Making games with objects nearby, creating sports that use local materials, loving the one you're with … it all makes sense and points to the human ability to adapt, thrive or at the least be reasonably content in one's environment.
This all circles back to what we have going on in Chico. People in Chico love to swim in creeks, such as a dip in Butte Creek Canyon and the need to build a concrete pool in lower Bidwell Park. Chico gets unreasonably hot in summer, but the spring wildflowers in spring are amazing. The flat terrain in the northern Sacramento Valley is nice for riding a bike, until it's too hot. Naturally, when it came time to plan a ridiculously long bicycle event (Wildflower Century ride https://www.wildflowercentury.org), Chico folks chose the last weekend in April, when the landscape is covered in wildflowers. In the fall we enjoy the fall leaves. In winter, we shop at farmers market on Saturdays for beautiful winter veggies, and wait for spring.