Sledding as a kid

By Rennie Phillips

For the past three weeks or so it has seemed like it has been rather chilly around here. We got a week of cold weather, then it warmed up into the 60s, then went back down to around zero. This past cold spell also has brought us some sleet and freezing rain, then snow. There hasn't been any real problems for us with the cold, but it hasn't been totally enjoyable.

Growing up it seemed like nearly every year from sometime in November till March or April it was cold and there was snow. One time, after Marge and I were married, it snowed a bunch and plugged up the roads and it was six weeks before we could get our car out. We had to have a four-wheel-drive vehicle to make it to town for groceries. There still was snow along the road in July. Cold and snow were normal.

When we were little, we didn't have those plastic sleds the kids have now. We had a couple wooden sleds with steel runners. Man they were good sleds. You could steer the sled with a wooden piece on the front, which made it nice going downhill. Only problem with them was the runners were narrow, so soft, deep snow didn't work real well.

Dad pretty much every day or two had to go get a load of hay on the sled. The hay sled was probably 20 feet long and 14 feet wide. It was wooden, with two wheels in the front and two on the back. Some used horses to pull the sleds. Dad used one of his C Internationals, which was a small tractor.

Dad used chains to load the hay and always dragged them behind the sled, so Mick and I would take our steel runner sleds and hook them on the end of the chains and let Dad pull us. When we got to the stack, we'd help Dad load the hay and then let him pull us back to feed the cattle. I always enjoyed it. I imagine we got cold, but I can't remember being overly cold. We probably were tougher back then and had warmer clothes.

We also had a wooden toboggan that was maybe 8 to 10 feet long. Man, that thing would fly down a hill. The front was bent in a kind of half circle so it could float over even powdery snow. You could go down a hill several times on the toboggan, and then the steel-runner sleds would work on the compacted snow. Somewhere we ended up with a pair of wooden skies. We tried them a few times, but they just didn't work. It was hard to hook them to our shoes, and I had a horrible time steering once they were on. If you weren't careful, you'd end up doing the splits.

One other thing we tried was a grain shovel or scoop that had about a 3-foot long handle. We'd stand in the scoop and hold on to the handle. It worked but sure wasn't safe. There was no way to slow down or stop, except take a tumble. I don't think we ever made it to the bottom of a hill on the scoop.

One thing we used that was a blast was an old inner tube. Dad usually had one that he took out of a tractor tire that leaked, so we'd pump it up and use it for sledding. Once you got it going down the hill, it would fly, turning you in circles in the process. As I remember, we could feel every little bump in the snow with the tube. They really work.

We also took an old piece of tin and bent one end up so it wouldn't dig in the snow. It worked as well, especially if the snow was melting just a bit right on top; it was like the tin floated on that thin layer of water. It was a lot of fun.

As Mick and I got older, we went from little hills to bigger and bigger ones. Some of the hills we kind of had to dare each other to slide down, and some we probably should not have tried. We were careful to make sure there weren't any barb wire fences. Back then, we didn't have four-wheelers so we walked to the hill from the house. I never thought anything about walking up and down the hills. Now I'd plan in my mind how I could use the four-wheeler. But then again, I wouldn't do some of the dumb stuff we did back then.

Most of us are really lucky or blessed not to have been killed or died because of stupidity growing up. Some would say lucky, but I believe we had someone a lot higher up watching over us. As we get older, we might want to give the younger generation a little more slack. Like we did, they are exploring this world and checking out the boundaries, and they just might make a few mistakes.

At the same time, those who are younger should give the older generation some slack. Most of us older folk have been there and done that when there wasn't a whole lot of resources to work with. They might want to ponder how some of us older folks grew up with manual transmissions and no power anything -- no AC at home or in the cars, no cell phones and only party lines, no indoor plumbing and an outhouse -- you think you know cold but then there is the cold of going out back in the middle of the night with snow on the ground -- and the list goes on.

I guess to sum it all up, it might be good if we extend a little grace and overlook our shortcomings, no matter the age.