Jim’s Journey – Jan. 29, 2015
– a recollection of a journey through time throughout Western Clinton County 1934 – present day as told to Tracy Embick.
Winter time always reminds me of the fun we had as kids in South Renovo. During the winter what a grand time we all had. We did a lot of sled riding on the slope at the school house. And we really enjoyed riding on one of the three homemade bobsleds. Bob and George Staib had the best one. We would start in the alley along Goldbergs grocery store and go down Pennsylvania Avenue make a hard right turn, then we continued down to Desmond’s home on 6th Street. We would then take the bobsleds back up to the store and do it all over again for another great ride. We would water down Pennsylvania Avenue about 3 feet from the side so we could make the sleds go better. We also skied down the road above the Scout house on 1st Street. We would start at the Pete’s Run reservoir.
Ice skating was also a favorite sport. The river was usually frozen over. Lee Jones whose nickname was “Maude” was the best skater in Renovo. He did mostly figure skating and others too. He was the best I’ve ever seen and he never took lessons. One winter ice in the river was 24” thick. A lot of the young men would drive their cars out on it. When it started to melt in the spring it would come up on the river bank. A lot of us boys would go under it to explore the caves the ice made. I wonder what our parents would do if they only knew the things we would get into.
Snowball fights began as soon as the snow came until it melted in the spring. I remember some of the older boys made a huge snowman in the front of Evanko’s green house on the sidewalk and it stayed there until spring.
Another fun way to pass the time was riding the bumpers of cars down Pennsylvania Avenue. When the roads were icy we would sneak out and grab the bumper, ride a couple blocks and let go. Bus Neil Benshaw and I got on the bumper one time and he had on a nice pair of mittens he had gotten for Christmas, one of them got stuck on the bumper of the car. We hunted all over to try and find that car but no luck!
