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| Ice Skating on the Niobrara River |
This photograph was taken on the Niobrara River in northern Rock County, Nebraska. The year is probably about 1920 or 1921. A group of neighbors had gathered on the ice for a skating party. My mother, Letha Turpin, is the little girl standing in front of the 7th person from the left. She was born in 1915.
The photo is timely for a January blog post. But it appears the weather was not 49 degrees like it is today in eastern Nebraska.
My mother grew up "in the country." She had only one sibling, a brother Clifford, and few close neighbors. So she truly loved big get-togethers like this. She was always ready to have company or go visit friends and family. I'm sure she was having fun on this occasion. That's why this photo is a favorite. It reminds me of her and how much she loved people.
My mother could recall many memories of the river which passed by her grandparents' homestead. The river's water was pure -- fed from springs across the Sandhills and from ice melt in the Rockies. Ice was harvested from the river in winter and stored in ice houses for use in the summer. She was somewhat fearful of swimming in the river during the summer. I'm sure there were rapids and some nasty currents. And of course the waters were very, very cold. But she remembered times when the young people went down to the river in summer to shoot guns. She claimed she could shoot the eyes out of flies across the Niobrara.
That's a wide river! So I didn't believe she was that good of a shot. But it was a good tale.
