1965 – 1970

We have all made mistakes over the years and I am certainly no exception.  Like the scene in “A Christmas Story”, I have fallen victim to my own errors in judgment when it comes to putting my tongue on a frozen pipe only to have it stick there.  This and many other adventures took place at the old Aspen Elementary School on Bleeker Street.  The doors on the west end of the school had metal hand-rails on both sides of the steps and as kindergartners it was that door that we waited each morning to enter the school. 

I did put my tongue on the frozen pipe but I was not the only one, names like Stapleton, Comkowich, Hoffman, Wirth and many more could also claim the same act of stupidity.  Suffice to say, it was not the last time any of us did but all the other times were on “dares.”

The playground on the Elementary School was filled with fun year round but in the winter it took on a new dimension.  Big snow piles courtesy of the City of Aspen, Street Department as well as Frank Garish and the crew at the school.  There were usually more than one pile so the “upper classmen, you know, the third graders” did not toy with the younger kids or bully them around.  On a good snow storm my father would come by with his “snow blower” that the City of Aspen leased every winter and build a few piles in a matter of seconds.  At the time these piles seemed like they were 40 feet tall when in reality they were probably no more than three of four feet.

The kids immediately set out to carve slides in to them or play a mean game of “King of the Hill.”  The girls often complained that the boys dominated the hills and when the teachers came out to reserve a hill for the girls they were met with a near riot.  You don’t mess with a gang of elementary school boys. 

Now days snow piles like that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen but back then they were just good, clean fun.  Gone are the days filled with danger on the elementary school playgrounds.