Winter Sport

A Memory of Kinnoull Hill.

The school bell would be rung around the playground. Dinner time. The children taking school lunch would cross to the church hall. My best friend and I would race away up the school brae and further on till we reached 'the quarry' at Corsie Hill. Ice lay thick on the pools beneath the cliffs. Huge icicles dripped from the rocks.
It was cold and our breath froze on our faces. We each had bread with something on it to eat and we broke off icicles to suck the freezing water. Then we made slides. Proper long slides. None of your playground rubbish with a queue to get on. Just career down and then run back to the top. Sometimes, career down sitting on a very wet bottom as your feet went from under you. The best fun ever. Strictly non-permitted of course but the school thought we were at my house and the folk there thought we were at school.
The chimes of St. John's Church in the town kept us alert. Quarter chime, half-hour gone passed, quarter chime again. One last skating, slipping rush on the ice then out of the quarry. Race down the hill and, if our timing was perfect the school bell would be ringing when we got to the foot of the brae. Sitting around all afternoon in wet clothing was a very small price to pay for a perfect hour of fun.

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