A rather cruddy post

Friday, February 11, 2011
There's no denying that winter's long in northern Minnesota. It's common knowledge that you should have a hobby to help bide your time in these frozen days. When it's -30F out, everyone's in want of a thrilling diversion from the dark, long nights like knitting, cooking, skiing  . . . . crud kicking!  

What's winter crud, you ask? Why, it's the wonderful brown substance that forms when snow mixes with road salt. It has a penchant for clinging to cars' mudflaps and frames and is often found in big blobs along road shoulders.

And crud kicking? It's the casual, noncompetitive sport I learned from my father of kicking crud wherever you find it. If you see some crud built up on your car's mudflaps: tap it. If you see a big blob of crud on the shoulder of the road: shatter it with a wind-up kick.  

There's only one rule to the sport of crud kicking, which my father taught my brother and I at an early age: Always tap a ball of crud lightly before giving it your best "soccer ball" kick to make sure it isn't frozen solid. (Your toes will thank you for this.)


Oh the joy in kicking the mud flaps and watching the thick layer of crud fall and shatter on the ground. The excitement in revealing the true exterior of your vehicle. The pride in looking at all brown gunk you've just dislodged and loudly exclaiming "Wow, look at that crud!"

It might seem to be a pointless pastime, but that crud can actually build up to the point where it affects gas mileage.

A crud kicker's job's never done.

(Let's just add this to my sporadic "you know you're a redneck when . . . " series, eh?)



14 comments:

  1. I know exactly what you are talking about! We have a lot of winter crud here in NY too! In fact, our's includes the cinder crud that we put down on our paths so we don't slip on the ice. Now that makes it dirty and our one cat that still goes out in the cold weather comes in with dirty feet. But what can you do? Cinders work well and they are at least safe.

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  2. My friends and I just had a discussion about this on Facebook. One of those weird things we love to do. I have to race my kids to the car now-a-days as we all want to kick the crud off! lol

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  3. I do this all the time without thinking about it anymore. You live with it long enough, it becomes a habit. :)

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  4. I live in the Sticks in MN and I know all about crud-kicking! Love it! Great post!

    Found you through the Be Joyful blog hop.

    http://www.stickburbia.com/

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  5. LOL, I am here visiting from the FTLOB hop...crud kicking...now I have never heard it called that but, I love it! great post.

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  6. Oh now I finally know what I am doing for years.....have a wonderful weekend. Paula

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  7. I'm from StickBurbia too (same as Tanya). I have to follow a fellow Minnesotan. I hate this weather. I hate the crud too...So gross. I have a pile of crud in my driveway that I hope melts and runs into the sewers soon..LOL

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  8. Thanks for checking out my blog, and we definitely have crud here in Pennsylvania! Loved this blog post!

    Cherie

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  9. I had never heard about crud kicking but now I will have to ask my Minnesotan cousins (my dad's whole family lives there, all five siblings and their kids!) if they've participated in this sport :)

    We had an ice storm last week and I had a lot of fun knocking all the little icicles that formed on our trash cans--sounds like a similarly satisfying activity!

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  10. That is hilarious! I'm totally going to have be a "crud kicker" now. :) Thanks so much for linking up! Hope you have a happy weekend!!!

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  11. Wow. I've never heard to that referred as crud. Maybe Pennsylvanians are less creative . . . we just call it dirty snow haha.

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  12. Crud kicking is quite satisfying. The bigger, the better, eh? Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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  13. hahaha- what a great way to get some aggression out, too! I'll have to go do some crud kicking before it gets too cold again :)

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  14. In Wisconsin we called these chunks "snards". Don't know why. I should mention that steel-toed boots help. Sometimes that ice HURTS!

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