skitchers
17 members have voted
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1. Mark your first thought (it may not be revelation)
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Sure I skitched, but I still graduated3
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Yes, but I didn't inhale0
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Of course, but clorox removes the skid marks2
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yes, but watch the manhole covers7
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yeah, and a little bee bop1
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No, I just said NO3
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No, but I voted for skitch before I voted against it2
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Ca_dreaming
Yes, and of course not. Basically your shoes/boots wore out before the clothes.
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Rocky
Well... I didn't google it... AND I hadn't heard it called that (and I AM over 50)... but I HAVE done it.
Before moving to AZ in 1968 (age 13), my brother and I did it a few times on side streets in Rochester NY... He, however, was more adventurous than I but he got me to try it. We had to use what we called back then "pack boots"... nothing else would protect our feet from freezing AND keep them dry. Besides, they did a good job of being slippery when we needed them to be. btw, we did this on the bumpers of cars that did not know we were doing it.
THEN... in the fall of 1972, after 4 years away from the snow, I (perhaps foolishly) had decided to attend Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The first snow that year was around Oct 21. Being away from parental supervision, but waiting until December when there was enough snow on the streets, a few of my fellow college freshmen and I did it a few times. That was also back before the age of emissions testing of cars... so, I got a plentiful dose of CO (carbon monoxide). Luckily, I didn't die, but did end up with a doozy of a cold/bronchitis.... I ended up not returning to NAU for the spring semester (not because of the "skitching"), enlisted in the USAF (even though my draft lottery number was 336) and the rest is history... It took me until 1986 to finish my bachelor's degree (at Arizona State... no snowy/icy streets here). The only times after my enlistment was up that I lived in snowy climes were when the 9th corpse was in first in-res year in Emporia, and 1981-82 I spent a year (WOW) in Fremont OH. It would not have been prudent to skitch in either of those places/times...
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Rocky
Oh, yes... and after reading CA_Dreaming's post, I remembered... there in Flagstaff... BEER factored into the equation significantly (by December 1972 I had turned 18 and back then 18 was the magic age for alcohol in AZ). And that probably played a big part in me getting that major cold/bronchitis that year.
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GodsGirl2
Shall us northerners call you to drive up for some real snow? Hey I have a big hill roller blades a bike or my baby's radio flyer that he wont use for years.. I am sure I can borrow a skate board from the neighbor boy. ;)
btw this is 17 inches, December 1st 2006.
So sad our only other snow was 1 inch this week.
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George Aar
For the life of me I couldn't remember the term we had for it 'round Seattle.
Then it struck me, "Hooky-bobbing".
Yeah, we used to do that whenever there was enough compact snow on the roads. Usually accompanied with a bottle of Boone's Farm. Switching hands to pass the bottle took a little practice.
Lord have mercy, why aren't we all dead already?
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GrouchoMarxJr
The first time I skitched, I needed the clorox afterwards.
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Rocky
Hey George, my guess is that we were more afraid to tell our parents (or, perhaps afraid to let them find out) than we were of this amazingly dangerous activity (or else we WOULD be dead by now)!!! God forbid our kids did/would do it and WE find out!! hahahahahaha....... I have no doubt my daughter would do it if she were anywhere near snowy streets. Thank God she's in Chandler, AZ (I think... I know it's -- almost -- 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?).
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GrouchoMarxJr
...or as they say in Poland..."It's 11:00, do you know what time it is?"
...to my Polish friends...just kidding, just kidding. :)
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Belle
Ahh ha ha ha ha...... I'm glad y'all survived to tell all these tales, George. :P
Rocky, I'm really glad the CO2 didn't kill ya. ^_^ What did y'all call skitching? And, I'll wager that you'd have done it again if you were still there the next year. ;)
GG2, thanks for the pics! I just can't imagine what it's like living with snow like that every year. It's just so far beyond my comprehension. It's also probably one of the main reasons why, when contemplating where I'd love to live someday, the Great White North isn't really ever one of the options. :B) I'd be so lost and ignorant that I'd probably freeze to death or have my house cave in on me the first year.
Groucho - LOL! My ex is Polish and he and his sisters used to get in trouble for sharing Polish jokes at the dinner table. It would incense the older generations, but the kids thought the jokes were hilarious.
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Rocky
No doubt I would have done it in 73 (at age 18/19) ... in the fall of 73 I was in beautiful downtown Biloxi... back in school... but this time getting paid for it (meager pay as it was... when I first started active duty, starting pay for an E-1 was $307.00 (NOT per week) per MONTH... with room and board added to it). But it didn't snow that year on the Gulf Coast.
What did we call skitching? Didn't have a word for it... just called it riding car bumpers on icy/snowy streets with slippery shoes.
Skitching was probably dumb, but it beat the heck out of vandalism or fight clubs or whatever else young people do these days!
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FullCircle
I never skitched, and we called it that too. I watched my brothers and his friends do it. They did it in the day time as well and that is when the plows would leave enough snow on the street to get packed down to turn into ice. My brothers and his friends did it with their bodies under the car. They hung onto the bumpers and let the rest slide under the car. Yikes. So not only did they have to worry about dry patches but also to keep their legs straight and not go under the tires of the car.
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BackForty
Following an unfortunate session of skitching...break dancing was born...
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rhino
But who you kiddin'? They didn't have no snow in Alabama! :) not in Texas either ... we had an inch once maybe ...
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NotMatilda
Natch...it was an acceptable, albeit stupid/hazardous, mode of transportation as a kidlet.
Southside of Chicago, backside of a bumper...it was great for at least two months out of the winter.
Dryspots and sewer covers were quite possibly the groundwork of communist infiltrators...or so we pronounced at the time.
Once I "skitched" (pronounced skeetched) from St. Linus parking lot to the Arena Bowling Alley, dropping off the '65 Ford Galaxy bumper just before Cicero Ave (soze I wouldn't git kilt)...shot pool with dirty leggins and a wet butt...lol.
I miss snow.
Aunty Em...Aunty Em...where are those damn ruby slippers, anyway?
X
M
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