The Toboggan; a funny story!

To begin this post, I would like to say that it is very cold here in Columbia, Missouri.  I (we) had no idea that it would be so much colder here than it was in Evansville.  I have asked a few people if this is "normal", and they say, "yes, but not for December; more normal for January." Oh, ok.  Thank goodness we love cold weather.  The high today was 29, and the highest it has been in the last two weeks is 37.  It has been a great reminder of North Dakota, and those temps are quite "mild" for North Dakota.  Everything is relative, isn't it?

All that said, we've pulled out our parkas, scarves, and hats... AKA toboggans.

And that brings me to this toboggan memory... growing up in West Tennessee, we wore toboggans in the winter to cover our heads and ears during the winter so that we would stay warm.  They weren't guaranteed to be used frequently throughout the winter as it doesn't get that cold, but most of the time we had a toboggan and mittens or gloves for those cold, wintry days. 

Moving forward to Mandan, ND, 2004... While living in Mandan, I had the privilege of incorporating a 21st Century grant in an elementary school.  I worked in a K-6 school of ~225 students; very small and so cute. :)  I loved it there!  I actually enjoyed it just as much as teaching... it was very rewarding.  I was in charge of the after-school program, managing 5 employees with up to 48 students enrolled.  We had them every afternoon from 3:30-5:30, when their parents picked them up.  It was an awesome program with an awesome group of teachers.  The grant targeted under-privileged families, and presented many great opportunities for the students and their families allowing them to participate in many things they would not normally have been able to do.  In addition, academics were targeted and students received daily help on homework or specific areas of weakness.
One opportunity was ice skating.  We had scheduled a few trips over the winter to the skating rink and we would be transporting them by bus and would provide the skates, but students would need to bring/wear their normal winter attire.  The normal winter attire includes a coat, snow pants, snow boots, mittens/gloves, and a hat of some sort.  They wear this to school every day during the winter and are not allowed to play outside at recess without it.  Yes, they play outside in the winter until the temperature drops below -15.  I always felt sorry for those who had recess duty!  So back to ice skating... the afternoon before we were to go, I was greeting parents and passing out reminders of the field trip and letting them know that they would need their winter attire, blah, blah, blah.  Well, Carlos, Cheyanne's dad, and I were talking about his concerns as she had never ice skated and I was assuring him that she would be fine and that we would take good care of her.  I jokingly mentioned that if she had her toboggan it might protect her head a little more if she fell.  Thought nothing of this conversation once he left. 

Fast forward to the next morning...

I had an office at my school, and my hours were 9:30 A.M. - 5:30 P.M.  I arrived to school, turned on my office light only to find a large pink sled leaned against my desk with a sticky note that said, "Cheyanne".  I thought hmmm... we are ice skating, not sledding... this is strange.  As I moved it out of the way and sat down, I saw it... the sticker on the front of the "sled"... in large, bright yellow letters, it said, "TOBOGGAN".  Once again, hmmm... never heard of such.  So, I picked it up and headed to the office where the secretary was used to my southern-isms.  I knew she was going to get a kick out of this.  It was so funny! 

So, this past Saturday morning as we were placing the boys' toboggans on their sweet little heads, my mind immediately went to Cheyanne and Carlos.  They went to Wal-Mart and bought a sled for the ice skating rink.  I felt so bad.  He was sweet and understanding... it caused him to laugh although I don't think he understood our toboggan-translation from the south. 

Little memories like these are so much fun!  Our West TN friends... I am guessing you've worn a toboggan on your head at some point in your life, and your children probably have, too. :)

For those of you who have worn beanie, hats, or stocking hats, you've learned a new term for a hat even if it's only understood in the south.  Our Lawson is already calling it his toboggan.  I plan to teach him and Emmitt the other names, too, so that they aren't embarrassed like their mama was.  :)

Below are pictures of them from Saturday...

Emmitt had just woken up and it was extremely cold outside, and he has a cold.  He looks pretty pitiful, but you gotta love that toboggan his grandmother knitted for Lawson his first winter... a good ol' hand-me-down! :)

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We shall enjoy our first winter in Columbia even if it's colder than we expected!  I do hope we get some snow!

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