Remembering Winters, pt 2 - Sledding

Of course, when my brothers and I were not shoveling snow, we were playing in it.

Sledding!  Three things were needed to make sledding perfect.  Vacation--one had to have time for it; snow--duh; and a hill.  We lived at the foot of a great hill.  In fact, this hill was our bank; my brothers and I supplemented our candy money by digging out cars of the motorists foolish enough to try driving up that icy hill.  There were a lot--sometimes four or five per snowstorm.  The tips were good.

As anyone knows who sledded in the 60's and 70's, the best sleds were the slat wood type with the metal runners.  The length of the sled varies, but the width was about 15 to 18 inches.  A wooden cross piece on a pivot at the front of the sled allowed for some measure of steering capability.  A rope was attached to each end of the handle for pulling the sled back up the hill.

Site preparation of the hill was all-important.  The deep snow had to be compressed and hardened for the metal runners to work well.  We didn't have the molded plastic sleds like today.  We had real wood, front-end curved-over toboggans.  Of course, no self-respecting boy would be caught dead using a toboggan on a finished hill.

But, necessity being the mother of invention, we used toboggans or cardboard to pack the hill.  Once enough of the hill was packed to assure several sleds could traverse side by side, we commenced our runs.  The repeated runs by the metal runners caused the hill to become slicker by friction and re-freezing. 

Several days might be necessary for the hill to reach optimum speed.  Mutual consent by the assembled neighborhood kids determined that point.  From then on, each boy would try to outdo the other with feats of sledding derring-do.  All manner of techniques were allowed--laying on one's stomach face front steering with ones' hands, sitting up steering with one's feet, even laying or sitting without steering.
 
But, the greatest and most dangerous stance was standing.  It was like surfing with reins.  This was the ultimate dare, gamesmanship at its best.  First, who would attempt the first standing run?  Then, who would be the first to accomplish the feat without crashing and burning?  The longer and faster the run, the more honor was garnered.  You could truly be "king of the hill."