Introduce Yourself : Icebreaker – Winter Edition! by Maurice Vaughan

Happy IYW, Maurice Vaughan! When I think of winter I always remember being a crime reporter for the New York Daily News when I was starting out and one day it was so ridiculously cold that there was nothing happening in the city so I was sent out to crack an egg on the sidewalk and time how long it took to freeze - it froze solid in under a minute - and the story ran on page 3 the next day. Stories are where you find them.

Happy IYW, Sam Sokolow. That's a great winter memory. Stories are definitely where you find them. I find stories in the news, videos, photos, real life, etc.

Anytime it snowed and I got to stay home from school

I loved those times, Ryan Greenberg. That was when I grew up in VA and NC. I was born in Delaware, and we had to go to school even when it snowed a lot.

Snow days. I remember one year where we had a few days in the row and I still remember that happy feeling.

I think we had a few snow days in a row too, Asmaa Jamil. That reminds me of the movie SNOW DAY.

Shoveling a large oval on the frozen pond in our small town to play ice-hockey with folded newspaper shoved into our socks as shin guards. Those were the days!

Well I'm from the Philadelphia area (not too far from DE) so yeah it'd have to be at least 3-4 inches to get out haha

That might've been so fun, Matthew Kelcourse! I've never played ice hockey. Just street hockey.

My wife and I used to live in the mountains of New Mexico, 8,400 feet up where we ran some cabins. Sometimes it gets lonely up there during the winter. But one night, on my birthday, I was feeling sad about how alone we were. A group of guys who were staying nearby showed up at midnight and took me "garbage bag sledding" on the ski lodge down the road which was closed. It was such a rush to sled down a mountain in the dead of night, with no lights.

That sounds like a rush, Leonardo Ramirez! How exactly do you garbage bag sled?

Driving my Southern California-raised daughters up to the mountains to watch them play in the snow.

That's a great memory, Brian Smith. Which mountains?

Hi Maurice and Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend!

My favorite winter memories are the walks I used to take in Monferrato, Italy, surrounded by those beautiful hills and vineyards covered in snow. There is something so quiet and peaceful about snow I can't explain...should write a piece of music about it when I get the chance...Attaching a picture of what I could see at my doorstep there :)

It's pretty straightforward, Maurice Vaughan - you get yourself a heavy duty lawn trash bag and slide into it. Gravity does the rest. It sounds bumpy, I know. But if there is plenty of snow, it's a fun ride! I was just scared that a bear would come out of nowhere!

The company my dad worked for would rent out a movie theater and screen a holiday film every year. It was so much fun to go and eat all the popcorn we wanted.

Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend, Elena Maro! Great memory! There is something quiet and peaceful about the snow. I like the sound of footsteps in the snow. I think you should write a piece of music about snow. I'd definitely listen to it.

That sounds fun, Leonardo Ramirez! Maybe the bear wants to go sledding. And you just gave me an idea for a scene.

Wow, Ashley Darland! I would've loved that! Do you remember what movies you watched?

The Santa Clause, Jingle All the Way, and the remake of Miracle on 34th Street. What can I say? I grew up in the 90s.

We had 23 kids on our street--Riding our sleds through a long winding maze and tall weed stalks on a snowy sloped hill cow pasture in the Midwest.

I watched "The Santa Clause" and "Jingle All the Way" in theaters, Ashley Darland! :D I might watch "Jingle All the Way" this weekend.

That sounds really fun, Pidge Jobst! How did y'all keep from getting lost in the maze?

That image is beautiful Elena Maro !

Too funny, Maurice Vaughan - you'll have to let me know what that scene looks like.

Swimming naked in a sauna with a group of strangers.

I definitely will, Leonardo Ramirez.

How did the strangers react, Bill McCormick?

Surrounded by family and snow (every year). Live doesn't get any better!

Maurice Vaughan nice one, Maurice! My winter memory is sledging down the slope of the Burn Valley. We always moved at quite a pace and the aim is to cross the by the bridge and not fall into beck (stream).

This day we made many crosses via the bridge, but there’s always one person who has great speed and no sense of direction. Left foot on the snow to turn left, right foot to turn right. Simple, eh? Well…like I said, great speed but… And so he hurtled down the slope and as he approached the bridge we shouted “right foot, right foot!” Then yes, you guessed it. He plants his left foot down, misses the bridge and dives, still on top of his sledge, into the freezing cold stream!

If there’s a moral to the story then maybe it’s, you may have great speed but if you have no direction, then the beck beckons! ;-)

Maurice Vaughan, it was in Sweden, so it was .... pardon the phrase .... cool.

We don't get much snow here, Tom Stohlgren, but family is my favorite thing about the holidays (and any time).

Favorite winter memory: Back in the 70's MN was hit with a couple of major blizzards that lasted for days, knocking out the power and forcing our family to move into the basement where we spent our days eating melted ice cream and playing board games. When it was all over, our yard was covered with these amazing and HUGE snowdrifts, some as high as twenty feet. Even our barn was almost completely buried. After Dad dug out the barn door so he could attend to the livestock, he went to work turning those snowdrifts into the coolest fort for his three young daughters. With rooms big enough to stand up in and tunnels and stairs and slides and look-outs! We had a blast! And now, as an adult, I have a much better understanding of just how much work that was. Kudos to Dad! <3

That's such a great memory, Geoff Hall. "If there’s a moral to the story then maybe it’s, you may have great speed but if you have no direction, then the beck beckons. Sounds like the theme for a racing script.

That sounds incredible, Sallie Olson! Melted ice cream and playing board games. I'd do that on a regular day. :)

Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend, Maurice Vaughan!!

One of my favorite winter memories is from my senior year of high school. My friends and I got together and went sledding on a huge hill. We took an old couch that one of our friends was getting rid of, nailed an old pair of skis to the feet, and then rode the couch down the hill repeatedly until it broke. Then we all went to lunch. It was a really fun day and I got a lot of it on film. I was filming a ton that year, to record our final year together before we all left for college. The videos always make me laugh.

Ashley Renee Smith I thank God video didn't exist when I was young.

Bill McCormick, its definitely a mixed bag. Lol! I have some videos that just make me cringe. But I'm still really glad that I have them!

Ashley Renee Smith There are some I which I had, but all are lost now. The last house I rented in the 90s burned down.

Grew up in SoCal. We get only a couple weeks of winter. I do remember it snowed once when I was a kid. Melted seconds after it touched the ground.

Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend, Ashley Renee Smith! That's a great memory! A customized couch for a sled? You and your friends were resourceful.

So it’s maybe ’69 and my band is booked to play at some bar on NYE. We were just kids in high school. Hippies and playing covers of bands like The Allman bros, Van Morrison, Procol Harum, Beatles, Quicksilver, etc. I’m pulling the 5x8 trailer with Dad’s ’66 Polara and it’s snowing like crazy. We get to the gig and the club is over water on the end of a pier. The wind and snow was blowing so hard I was afraid I’d get blown off.

I walk into the club and you could tell right from jump that we shouldn’t be playing here. This is a country bar and we were hippies playing rock ’n roll. We set up and start playing and they hate us. We didn’t know any of their request and the crowd didn’t like anything we did, or the way we looked, and we were really loud. Before it was even close to midnight the owner pulls the plug on us. Remember, this is new Years Eve! He pulls the plug on NYE!! Lol Then we pack up and we’re ready to take the 3 hour drive to get back home. It’s snowing so hard that we can’t drive.

The owner now feels really sorry for us and takes us kids to his house to sleep for the night. He tells us to go up in his attic to sleep. We climb up those stairs like in Christmas Vacation and here the 5 of us are sitting in this guys attic with all his crap. There was no room for us at all. No room to lay down and sleep. You could just sit on the floor. About an hour goes by and George pulls out some weed and we roll a couple joints. Now we’re all laughing about the circumstance we’re in. It’s about 3am and George sneaks downstairs and goes into his refrigerator and finds a turkey. He carves it up and makes a few sandwiches and brings them back up in the attic. After we eat we all sneak downstairs and got the heck out of there. Gone like thieves in the night. When he got up in the morning we and the turkey were gone.

Sorry to hear the house burned down and the videos got lost, Bill McCormick.

Bummer, Alister Brooks. It might've been exciting to see snow in SoCal though.

One of my favourite winter memories is of night skiing under a full moon. I grew up skiing at a local mountain with primitive facilities, i.e. rope tows, every weekend in the winter. One weekend we'd had a huge dump of new snow, and with the full moon we decided to start one of the tows and ski in the moonlight. Nearly everyone staying on the mountain came out to ski that night!

Such a great memory, Ingrid Wren! "One of my favourite winter memories is of night skiing under a full moon." That sounds like a scene in a Romantic movie. :)

Great story, Linwood Bell! The owner must've been HOT about the turkey!

Hello Maurice Vaughan . It is a pleasure to meet you, sir. :>) My most recent favorite Winter memory was watching Polar Express with my young son around Christmas time and seeing the absolute wonder and joy all over his face. It also reminded me of the power of the story, and that experience which can take you somewhere else...

Sallie Olson that’s one amazing Dad, Sallie! Wow, not just a fort, but a fort with rooms. Your Dad was a Snow Architect!

Geoff Hall Funny you should say that since, although he was a carpenter, he went to college to be an architect! LOL

Thinking back to the days my brothers and I happily played in the snow... Fast Forward to today's memories... I can't stand this stuff.

Pleasure to meet me, DT Houston? Haven't we meet already? I'm trying to think where we've met.... Haha I've been meaning to watch "Polar Express" for a LONG time. Stories can definitely be powerful. They can linger with a person for years.

You're welcome, Mark Deuce. That sounds like it's so fun. I don't remember the last time I played in deep snow. I do remember snowball fights though.

What games did you and your brothers play in the snow, Vikki Harris?

Anything and everything Maurice Vaughan for hours that made our mom drag us in the house and stand us in front of the radiator before hypothermia set in.

HEY Maurice! OOOH!! That deep snow! LOVE looking at it from afar! Its beautiful but MY BONES NEVER LOVED IT even as a young child!! I will stay where its a very light snow fall thank you!!

Maurice Vaughan you got a nice thread going here. Very fun reading...

Crazy sleigh rides, through the snowy wild filelds in Poland, with kids falling off one by one from the sleds linked with rope in a chain, and attached to fast tractor - All survived however :)

"stand us in front of the radiator before hypothermia set in." My family made us do that too, Vikki Harris! :D

I know what you mean, Sherri ZImmerman. Playing in the snow was fun, but it wasn't fun when the snow got in our clothes and the cold air hit our skin.

I appreciate it, DT Houston. I like to do icebreakers during Introduce Yourself Weekend. Sometimes I'll switch it up and do something different.

Glad everyone survived, Katarzyna Adamus. Your memory sounds like it's straight from a Holiday Family Comedy movie.

Sleigh riding! Happy Holidays Maurice Vaughan!!

Sounds fun, Jane Tumminello! Happy Holidays!