by: Charles Young |
In 1998 Vern and his wife Barbara moved back to the old Phipps family farm in Arkansas.
We had a 3/4 acre place near Crestone, Colorado before we moved to Arkansas. We lived near a creek. When the creek started to freeze in the winter, we would cut ice and stack it across the creek to make a little dam. The next day another layer of ice would be frozen on top of what had already been there. When the ice got thick enough to stand on, we would build a big fire and put cedar boughs on it. The thick smoke that drifted into town was a signal that the ice was ready. That evening the townspeople would come for a skating party. We kept the fire going and people could come and get warm around the fire.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] since 1997