Winter won't leave!

My dad Brandy used to say, "Old Man Winter has the guts to come early, and doesn't have the decency to leave on time'............Truer words were never spoken. GO HOME Old Man Winter. We appreciate (?) your visit, now get the hell out of here......Back in the day we Coralville kids knew when it was Spring..., the Spring rains filled the ditches in front of our houses! Huh, well of course this was waaaaay before paved streets. All the streets were chip/seal, and each side of every street had ditch for the water from the streets to drain to......Under each driveway was a culvert to help the water 'flow' to the low spots and 'down the street'.. BUT, in a BIG rain, the ditches filled up, the culverts either filled up with too much water, or they were plugged with weeds grass, rabbit nests etc....This created a wonderful opportunity! Most fun was jumping from the yard TO the street or vice versa... Sometimes you had to get a run to jump and clear the water, and best of all, .........sometimes you made it, then lost your balance and leaned/fell backwards and got your tennis shoes, jeans, etc, wet and muddie in some cases.. This was a riot! On your way back to school at 'school', (now known as Central Elementary) it was a constant jump across ditches all the way.. IF you got wet or muddy,, too bad, AND,, NOBODY cared! We now have paved streets, underground storm sewer drainage, and all these fun things are gone. Speaking of fun, walking to and from school was a LOT of fun! I don't know if kids still do this, but I sure see a lot of cars in front of schools in the morning and in the afternoons.. Too many kids not experiencing the fun of walking to school with friends and the 'fun little experiences' that we had!!! Bring on Spring, we are ready!!