Memories

I am walking through the silence of this cold and frosty night,
I am treading on the diamonds that sparkle with the light.
And the throbbing, beating pulses of the whispering cold night air,
Have reached into my heart and found the memories lurking there.

I can glimpse the roaring bonfire and the laughing, joyous crowd,
And the bob¹ that came a shooting like an arrow thru a cloud,
I can taste the baked potatoes and the butter and the salt,
I remember how the coffee called the sledding to a halt.

The echo of young laughter, the call of “clear the track!”
All the wild, mad, joy of living has come swiftly surging back.
And my soul is filled with gladness, yet my heart is weeping tears,
For my childhood that has vanished with the swiftly passing years.²

By Barbara Beldam
from May to December, 1979

¹ Bobsled.

² Beldam, Barbara, Memories in Okanagan History. 60th Report of the Okanagan Historical Society. [Kelowna, BC: Okanagan Historical Society,] 1996, p. 20.

³ Photo from the North McGrath (Carter) Collection, Lake Country Museum & Archives. Accession # 2015.37.