Winter fun in '63
The woods around Connie Parkman may have been lovely, dark and deep. But she had snowshoes on her feet — and miles to go before she’d sleep. Or maybe not. Connie, 15, played with her friends in the snow on Sunday, Jan. 27, 1963, after nearly a foot of snow fell. Cold and snowy days that month convinced some people to smile at winter’s shenanigans. They brought toboggans and sleds to Central Park and rode the snow-covered hills. They used excess snow for snowmen and snow dogs. They laced up skates and cut up the ice. They prepared for ski expeditions. Posted on January 17, 2011.
Connie Parkman, 15, sees that Debbie Bunner, 6, has decided to hitch a ride on her snowshoe on Jan. 27, 1963. Gail Pugh, also 15, shows Debbie how snowshoes are best used. The kids were on an adventure in the Coldbrook section of Rotterdam.
Gail Pugh, 15, left, and Connie Parkman, also 15, right, wear smiles and snowshoes during a cold January Sunday in 1963. The boy in the center is not identified.
Connie Parkman, 15, plants her snowshoes and leads the way down a huge hill in Rotterdam’s Coldbrook neighborhood on Jan. 27, 1963. Gail Pugh, also 15, is second in the expedition.
Three cool cats sit on a cold, snowy dog on Summit Avenue in Schenectady during the winter of 1963. From left are Donald Frame, 9, Joseph Bellomo, 12, and Larry Frame, 7. The kids used mountains of snow to create the chilly canine.
Florence Crump, a teacher at Schenectady’s Zoller School, loads a pair of skis into her car on a snowy day in January 1963. Crump had just purchased the seasonal accessories for her son.
A Rotterdam woman tells a snowplow driver she doesn't need any more snow; she told the man she had shoveled the entrance to her driveway on Edith Lane twice . . . only to watch plows fill in the opening with fresh snow from the street. The drama took place on Jan. 27, 1963.
72° F | Schenectady, NY









































