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rite of passage On television today there was a local news story about two boys falling through thin ice on a lake near my house. Both them were fine and lived to tell what had happened to them, but hearing them made me think about the time that I did the same thing many years ago. One set of grandparents have a place on a lake in northern Wisconsin and naturally this was where I spent most of my time be it summer or winter. Well, it was during one of those winters when I was making my way along the edge of the ice when I heard a cracking sound and quickly found my kneecaps at the same level as the top of the ice. Without expecting it, I had fallen through and I have to say that there was more anger than panic. There wasn't any danger of drowning since I was probably five feet from shore, but my boots were far from being dry and warm. Thankfully the sun was out that day as I made the twenty minute walk back home listening to my boots squish the entire way. It wouldn't have been that bad except for the wind making my pants legs more than a little stiff. There wasn't any way that I could hide what had happened to me and since I wasn't hurt there was more laughter than anything else from my parents and relatives when they saw me. In my defense I don't think that I was being that reckless and I know that both my dad and brother have also done the same thing at one time or another. |