Red Mitten Memories

Today I’m playing along with Lisa-Jo Baker’s five minute Friday again.  The idea is to write for five minutes steady and flat.  The hope is to let go of perfectionism and uber-editing so that a single thought can develop on its own.  The prompt for our writing this week was RED.  Feel free to link over to her site here to read her post and see all the other links. I was going through the kids clothes today in preparation for a consignment sale when I came across these…… These tiny red mittens that my son wore years ago.  The sight of them pretty much undid me for a bit.  Had his hands ever been that small?  Surely they had for they are not only worn, but frayed with use.  And then a memory came back.  It was the first time the children ever played in the snow.  Where we live doesn’t get many falling white flakes, so one year on a holiday weekend we went out in search of snow.  Our path took us through Cherokee, NC and Gatlinburg, TN.  And find snow we did. So much of it that we went out and bought sleds to use an a hill we passed by. We were standing at the top of the hill getting ready to go down.  My son and I were to go down together as we thought him too young to sled on his own.  He sat down first and before I could join him, he pushed himself off and flew down the large snowy hill on his own.  My heart was in my throat the whole way down with fear.  When he got to the bottom, he jumped off his sled and clapped those red mittened hands like it was the best moment of his life.  Now as then he goes off on his own adventures leaving me a worn, little red mitten to remember him by.   ]]>