Ski season is winding down here in Michigan. It never seems to last long enough, it either starts too late or it ends too early. Here it is the middle of March and its just about over. I always plan on skiing more than I actually do, whether its work or family commitments the season just slips by and I’m left wishing I had gone a few times more. In Michigan we don’t really have mountains to ski on, we have hills. Sure we have some big hills and some medium sized hills, but I get to the bottom of them and I always wish they were longer. Sometimes it feels like you spend more time riding the chairlift than you do skiing. Because of that you can meet some pretty interesting people on the chairlift.
The most bro-tastic chairlift ride was with two college dudes who happened to attend the same college I did 30 years ago. What commenced was a rollicking conversation as I quizzed them about some of the bars that I had frequented and if they had also been there.
“So is the Cabin still there I asked,”
“Oh dude that”s a great bar, that’s the first bar I went to in Mt. Pleasant.”
“How about the Wayside”
“Of course dude, that’s where you go to pick up chicks.”
I was a little disappointed that they had not heard of the Pub. The Pub was a little bar in downtown Mt. Pleasant , it wasn’t very big and I think all they had was a jukebox, but it was a great place to hang out with your friends and drink and talk. It also had Thursday night drink specials featuring 2 for $5 Long Island ice teas. If you were going to go to the Pub on Thursday nights and drink Long Islands then you either didn’t have Friday classes or you were blowing them off.
They said they would have to check and see if the Pub was still around. By this time we had reached the top of the hill, we fist bumped each other and went our separate ways with them bellowing at me “have a great run dude.” Ah, college kids, don’t ever change.
Another memorable ride was with a high school girl who didn’t even realize I was trying to talk to her. This was because she had her ear buds in listening to her music. She was kind enough to take them out and indulge me in some conversation. Although she spoke flawless English, she had a wonderful European accent. She said she was an exchange student from Germany and when I remarked how great her English was, she said it was mandatory that every student learn English beginning in the third grade. I’ve always thought that Europe does some things better than us and their willingness to learn multiple languages is definitely one of them. She said that she had been skiing since she was 3 and that every year year her parents took them on a ski trip to the Italian alps. I said she must be a little disappointed skiing in Michigan compared to the alps and that she needed to go out west to ski on some mountains comparable to the alps. I saw her many times that day, she was an excellent skier and with her ear buds in and music playing she seemed to be having a wonderful time.
Another memorable ride was with a precocious young girl who was not skiing but was snowboarding. I asked her how she was doing and she took one big breath and said the following with no pauses or stops or anything…
“I’m doing fine, isn’t it a great day, its so beautiful today, my dad works here so I’ve come out every weekend since they opened which was Thanksgiving weekend, I taught myself how to snowboard, well I did take one lesson but all the instructor wanted to teach me was how to stop and I already know how to do that, I wanna know how to go fast. I keep trying to go over the jumps but sometimes I fall but it doesn’t hurt or anything. I have a brother and he snowboards too and he’s better than me right now but I told him someday I’m going to be better than him. I have a special needs sister and on Thursday they have a program here that lets special needs kids come out and a bunch of volunteers help them ski, my sister has spina bifida so they put her in a sled and ski down the hill with her in the sled. Isn’t that a great program, you should see the smile on my sisters face.”
By now we had reached the top and I had maybe interjected a “wow” and a “really” into the conversation. My head was spinning with everything she had told me and I seriously needed to take a break. She jumped off the chair said over her shoulder “see ya.” What I really wanted to tell that little girl was…don’t ever change.
The one person I wanted to ride in a chairlift but never got the opportunity to was “Batman.” I’m not kidding, there’s a guy who dresses up in a full Batman costume and skis all over Michigan. I’ve seen him a couple of times this year, he has his own Facebook page called “Batman on the slopes.” I’ve remarked to other chairlift companions as we’ve watched Batman ski down a hill that you have to be a pretty good skier to wear a full Batman costume and ski, you can’t be a beginner or even average. And believe me Batman is good. The funny thing is I’ve never seen Batman actually ride a chairlift or even be in a chairlift line, but he’s always at the top of the hill or on his way down. Hmmm…makes me wonder how Batman gets to the top of the hill.
There were many other memorable people I rode up the hill with this year…the guy who insisted on putting the safety bar down because he had issues with heights and then proceeded to tell me about the new skis he just bought and how great they were. I bought new skis this year too, but I don’t tell everyone about them even though they are great and better than yours. The lady from Romania who lived in Chicago and was with a ski club from the Chicago area. The two middle school age boys who talked cattily about their friends the whole ride up the hill….and I thought only middle school girls did that.
I was on one of the last rides of the day, the hill was clearing out, the sun was disappearing, the wind had started to blow, it was getting colder. I was riding in the chairlift by myself lost in my thoughts, reflecting on what a great year of skiing it had been. The season had passed too quickly, I hadn’t skied enough, there were missed opportunities when I should have been skiing but I wasn’t. I noticed a lone skier coming down the hill, it was my son. He’s only been skiing for 3 years now and he’s still needs to improve his skills but he loves skiing, loves being outside, loves going fast.
I realized what I was going to miss was the long car rides with him to the hill, sometimes the miles passing in silence, sometimes him remarking about my taste in music, (I’m stuck in the eighties), and sometimes his opening up about what was happening in his world with school and friends and such. I was going to miss our ski day lunches in the crowded lodge as we ate a brown bag lunch we hurriedly packed that morning…a sandwich, a can of Pringles, some fruit, trailmix and maybe some jerky. And most of all I was going to miss watching him improving and getting better each time we skied, him loving the same thing I do.
I had reached the top of the hill and I quickly jumped off the chair and raced down the hill…I had one more chairlift ride of the season and I knew who it was going to be with.
Thought for the day…
When you forgive, you don’t change the past you change the future
John's Blog 