Bringing Up The Rear: A Whole New Definition

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

It was a brutally cold day back in the late 1970s. We were all decked out in our heavy jackets and boots. We wished we were back inside enjoying the warmth of the heaters as they pushed their hot air into our faces and the classroom. Under our jackets, some of us were dressed in sweaters, while others had on sweatshirts. Everyone had on long pants.

The “we” were my fellow classmates. I was in the third grade. We were escorted outside and up the giant hill into the woods. I can’t remember why we were in the woods but it was some kind of class assignment.

Everything was cold. You could feel the bitterness of the cold coming through your whole body. The warm clothing did nothing to stop the cold. The gloves were no match for the cold weather. Our hands were numb. We had heavy knit hats on. They had some kind of knit ball on the top. We had our hoods up, like that was supposed to stop the cold.

Everyone and I mean everyone had boots with treads. Back in the day, they were called moon boots. Unfortunately, I didn’t have moon boots. I had some boots that didn’t have treads on them. They were nice brown leather-looking boots.

There was a path cut into the hill by all of the kids walking back down the hill. Under the snow was ice. Everyone knows that ice is not good especially if you have no tread on your boots. I started to walk down the hill and I kept slipping. How bad was it? It was BAD. I couldn’t stand up. I kept going down.

I was bringing up the rear in more ways than you think. LOL

The only way to make it down the hill was to let my butt hit the snowy, icey trail and push myself down the hill. I’d try to get up and then I’d fall back down. My butt would hit the path and I would have to push myself with my hands and arms to just go a little ways. One of my classmates told me to come on. But I couldn’t move very fast because I kept going down. So I stayed down there and tried to push myself. It was awful. I couldn’t go very fast. I was the last one on that hill. Did anyone come to help me? Nope. I couldn’t go to the side because the snow was so high. So there I was pushing myself down the hill alone. Once I got down the hill, I was able to get up and walk to the area where everyone was gathered.

After that happened, I begged my Mother to buy me some moon boots. The next year I got them. The only problem was, we never went back into the woods behind school again. But I had them for other needs. When my Mother came home from work, she had to park far away from our trailer. I used to come out with my moon boots on and help her across the street because it was icy.

Until next time, happy reading.

-Matt