It has finally happened. We are actually experiencing a few near normal winter-like days. I hope I am not sounding happy about it, but some things just aren’t supposed to be messed with, and with the more stable winter temperatures the ice fishing has once again been going in full force.

Even with the unstable weather we have had up to this week, it seems that the fishing around the area has been fairly steady. The Waterville and Faribault areas have also been reporting some descent catches of crappie, jumbo perch and an occasional walleye or two.

I spoke with my brother-in-law, Lynn, a couple of days ago. He lives in Nome, Ala., and said the temperatures there had been in the 20s and had just now dropped into single digits again.

About a week ago, he called to tell us they were having a blizzard and I actually almost felt jealous. There definitely must be something wrong with my thinking.

I can remember reading a &uot;Born Loser&uot; cartoon a few years back, showing the dad and his son shoveling the sidewalk after a snow. The dad was telling the kid &uot;They sure don’t have winters like they did when I was your age.&uot; All you could see of the kid in the shoveled path was the top of his stocking cap.

With the cold weather and few flurries we have had recently, I couldn’t help but recall the many nights I used to go to bed with a few layers of quilts, turn my reading lamp on and open a book. I would read many different books, but my favorites were outdoors books. James Kjelgaard was an author I enjoyed reading. He wrote books about animals and kind of gave a perspective from the animal’s view.

His most famous book was probably &uot;Big Red.&uot; Jack London’s &uot;Call of the Wild&uot; was another one I liked. These books would actually put you out in the wilderness and, with a little imagination, you could almost see yourself there.

I guess I always felt secure under all those blankets listening to the winter wind blowing the snow against the window and knowing I was safe and warm. In many of those books it would describe how a person or an animal would take shelter in pine branches nestled out of the cold wind and snow. I would many times fall asleep dreaming I was there.

Reading is an important part of growing up; it helps you build an imagination. When not reading books I would read old Outdoor Life and Sports Afield magazines that my cousin Tom had given me. Kids today have a lot of things available to them that a lot of us never had when we were growing up, but nothing could replace the old Weekly Reader that was mailed right to your house every week in the summer.

I can also remember listening to the radio on Saturday nights. Gunsmoke, Roy Rogers, and Gangbusters, which always started out with the sound of a machine gun, were my favorites.

When I wanted to watch TV, there were certain times when our neighbor would let us come over and watch Sergeant Bilko, Howdy Doody or Uncle Miltie, but we had to stand outside and watch through the screen of the window in his den. When he thought he’d had just about enough of us kids gawking at the wonders of television, he would simply close the curtains and we would go away. This would usually happen just before the end of the show.

My Uncle Harvey and Aunt Ruby had a TV and we would sometimes go to their house and watch it. I can remember the time Uncle Harvey told everyone about his new color TV. It turned out to be one of those pieces of colored film that you stuck over the screen.

You could have color TV in those days, but I think it only came in red or green.

Now there are some fish houses that have satellite dishes and probably have better TVs than I do in my house.

I don’t think I could imagine growing up any other way. Making your own fun was just part of life in the old neighborhood. Keeping things simple can sometimes be a good thing.