Naw, they had to whittle their own toys up there! Hence his wood working skills! Non crafty kids simply had to play with sticks. Only kids that lived in town got store bought toys. Parents wouldn't let them have knives.

That was only during the two months of year there wasn't snow. The rest of the time they played with toys they crafted out of ice and snow.

He is just now learning trolling. It is hard to get experience when the lakes are only open two weeks out of the year.

This is the point when Stephon comes on with: when I was a kid, we got up at 2am to feed the animals, I had to walk 5 miles to school uphill both ways. We warmed rocks on the stove to keep our hands warm and keep us on the ground from the 100mph winds. That was in summer. I got home, worked the farm and went to bed at 1am. 26 hours a day is hard work! That was when I was 3. By age 5 I was working 28 hours a day. Yoopers have longer days than those below the bridge (or they can't add well). That might be from the fact that they walked so far that when they got to school tgey simply turned around and went home.