Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

gone over to Strykowo to visit Horst and Bernd."

"Do you remember the other day?" I said, "before the snow fell, and the ice was as smooth as a mirror? I just opened my coat and let the wind push me, like a sail. I went ever so fast. Would have been nice to see how they got over the cold day yesterday."

"Probably much the same as we did, stayed in all day." "Hey, look there! What's the snow plough doing here on the ice?" "May be sweeping a path for us to skate on?"

We skated to the end of our patch and Günter called over: "Hey, Jerzy, are you going to clear a path for us to skate on?"

"No, master. The road is completely snowed under, and your father told me to clear a path up to Strykowo. This is going to be the road now for everyone."

"What? if we have to go to the station with the sleigh, we have to come this way?"

"Yes, even the big steam engine, which they need in Strykowo, has to go here over the lake."

"But that's impossible, Jerzy. How thick do you think is the ice then?" "Your father said, it is at least 75 cm thick. So no matter how heavy a vehicle is, the ice will hold it."

"And what about the fish holes?" I wanted to know, "Will they keep them open as well, right next to the road here?"

"More so now than before. The fish need some holes to get air." There was a hole of about 25-40 cm in diameter every 50 meters in the ice to allow the fish to breathe, as they said. It had to be stirred several times during the day so that it would not freeze over. We children had to watch out that we did not fall into those holes.

As we went back to our skating, Günter said: "Do you remember, Vater telling us the story about the man going over to Slupia to church when the new ice was still very thin?"

"Do you mean, the man walking across here last December?" Günter nodded.

"He was only half way over, when he suddenly realised that he was walking up a slight hill."

"Yes, it was all new ice, which holds much better together, than old ice. As he walked he prayed all the way to church, and he reckons that God saved him that day."

"But he didn't go back the same way, did he. He was just too scared." "Wouldn't you be?"

"Well, we're not allowed on fresh ice anyway." That night we heard several big bangs from the lake which sounded like gun shots. We had just gone to bed, and I was a bit scared.

"Don't worry, it is only the ice expanding which makes the noise," explained Vater. "When it gets very cold, ice expands and gives off those terrific bangs. Tomorrow you will see long rifts in the ice. You will have to

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