Yes, I remember those days. We had a very steep hill in the neighborhood where we would all gather. No one had a "real" sled. We used old signs, trash can lids or anything that had a good surface. We had a great time.

My brother an I both had steel runner sleds that were just perfect for careening down our long hilly driveway. We perfected the art of doing a sliding turning stop at the bottom so we didn't shoot out into the road. I imagine some parents would panic at the thought of their kids doing that nowadays, but we were in perfect control at all times. Truly.

Good times.

ThinMan

When I was young the city used to block off 2 streets when we had a good snowfall. Hospital hill as we used to call it was quite steep so we had quite a long run with our sleds. There were a couple of bobsleds but these came out in the evening when the older folk took over the hill. It was a fun ride but I hated the climb back to the top. Come to think of it the winter we are having this year is reminiscent of some of the winters we had back then, lots of snow. Winters here nowadays are usually quite mild with just 3 or 4 weeks of really cold weather.
When my dad was a kid the saltwater harbor froze over, hard to believe but that's what he told me. It must be a true story as I was out at a gathering one night and one of the old timers older than my dad was talking about this same winter, they even had horses out on the ice.

Annette

I was always envious of my friends as a kid, since they had the saucers. I was stuck with a gorgeous wooden sled with runners. The saucers could skim over a sparse snowfall, but my heavy sled with its blades (and my short chunky body) needed a deeper snow to move. Mostly, I dragged it behind me and sighed a lot. It was nice the few times we had snow deep enough to use it. Because it was steerable, we could mostly avoid things in our way. We were forbidden to go out on the road, despite being in a (then) dead-end subdivision, because when we were tykes a poor young girl got hit while sledding down a road. I was never convinced she really existed, because she was only ever brought up the 1st snowfall. If I had managed to get a trash can lid from under my father's watchful eyes (because They Cost Money), my mother would have been both mortified by what anyone would have thought and upset that I was going to dirty up another towel when she got through scrubbing me down. Also "They Are Not Toys." : )

Neighbors of mine here tell me a road near us going down to the river used to get closed off when they were kids. Bonfires were lit and parents would hang out at the bottom of the hill and watch the kids. Personally, that hill would freak me out it's so steep. But, it does seem like a shame that today's kids don't get to experience that. I once got to hang out with a friend's family during a good snowstorm. We rode horses (cool!) to a hill where they had already set up barrels for fire (really cool!) and we eventually all came back nearly blue, it was the best. I even rode an innertube, which probably cost money and certainly wasn't meant to be a toy.

We may get ice later this week, but we still haven't had more than a dusting of snow.

I grew up in coastal New England. We had lots of snow every year, back then. I grew up on a dairy farm. Come winter, we sledded and my Dad plowed snow for the rich folks - because he could, he had the trucks and tractors, and there wasn't much else to do on the dairy farm back then.

Our home encompassed a large hill - North Hill, as it was called - a hundred or so acres - rolly, bumpy and amazingly beautiful. Even in my early days, sledding was a major draw, what with all the rolly, bumpy parts. We had the bestest place for sledding and some even skiied on the slopes. North Hill was a mecca.

Out of economic necessity, North Hill evolved into a golf course and some slopes went away, but more evolved (like the terraced third tee abruptly ending in a water hazard). I guess I should miss that ....

But, there are too many painful memories. so I've just tucked it into the far recesses of my foggy memory.

Thanks for listening ..... I'll go quietly now .. :o)

Hee-hee! What great memories. Having been a spoiled princess as a child, I had both a beautiful wooden sleigh with steel runners, and a flying saucer! The saucer was way better on the heavy wet snow we got then. The sleigh needed packed snow, and there's no way my mother was going to let the princess out on some common road. Right beside where my Mum grew up was what I can only describe as a 'suicide' hill that she remembered sledding down.....

Nancy.

When I was small we lived in a small town that had a couple of wonderful hills for sledding. One was the hill that we lived on. One was up by the park and someone would always build a bonfire (out of old tires, no less!) and my sister and I usually had to be dragged home. I remember my white rubber boots being blackened from the fire smoke. We would ride down the hill sometimes piled two or three high. There were always crashes but no one got hurt. It never snows here like it used to. Boy, I miss those snows.

Wow, Kent you tell a good tale. Dang, I sure missed out.

The part of TX where I grew up did not have too many snowmen. But here is one.

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The Citrus Fiesta parade is always the last week in January. Those are fresh Texas oranges and grapefruits on that float, built by these youngsters. Not professional float decorators, for sure, probably saying "those things cost money".

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What a wonderful lighthearted post. I enjoyed reading everyones posts and smiled at old memories...my how things have changed over the years....(boy do I sound like my mom and grandma...when did that happen?) I never see a kid out with a sled around here and I live in a small small town not in the big city. Kids play indoors, unless they are on a motorized toy. That leaves sledding out.....boy what they miss..just read this post and replies...makes me wonder what memories those kids will have..maybe "When I was a kid, we played WII for hours and hours" or when I was a kid, we rode fourwheelers....anyway..thanks for the post guys..nice change of pace topic..
When I was a kid, we had a tobbaggon..it belonged to my father when he was a kid in the fourties, he bought it by scrimping and saving his allowance in tight times as a young boy. He then treasured it dearly, waxing and polishing it to make it fly..it was a 6 footer. We had a big hill by our house and all the towns kids came to sled there. That toboggon weighed a ton...it would take two or three of us to pull it up the steep hill. But we could load that thing up to go down. Heaviest in the front for speed...strongest in the back for pushing power...girls in the middle for sound effects :). Of course..that was not enough thrills soon enough..we shoved ramps at the bottom of this big hill...then we loaded that toboggon up and screamed at the thrills of launching off the ramp at the bottom with great speed. Each trip down we got braver and braver..and the ramps got bigger and bigger..that pooor treasured toboggan creaked and groaned....then we got the smart idea to leash it to the back of our snowmobile...and that poor toboggon that lasted my dad twenty some years...now lasted us just two.....boy was my dad mad at our lack of respect for it. We did not see it that way, we were just having fun.....now today, I see it diff..and I wish that old boggon was around...and if my dad was, I would say I am sorry.

I'm enjoying reading all of your posts. As ThinMan said, "Good times".

I wonder if any of you have ever heard of a "rip".
My mother said they had them when she was young and that so many kids got hurt on them, she thinks they outlawed them. I've not been able to find a single shred of evidence of a "rip" online. I'm wondering if it might have been a one-of-a-kind item that someone in her town built and they got rid of it because of kids getting injured.
It had an unusual construction:
It had runners like a sled and was meant to carry ~3-6 passengers, except that instead of sitting on it and going one behind the other in a column you went down the hill side-by-side in a row. So the runners would have been at the ends of the row. Mumsie says that you would lie on the board on your tummy with your knees bent. Heads first down the hill, often with a layer of little kids lying on top of bigger kids. She said they would literally fly down the hill it would go so fast. So, anyone ever heard of a "rip"?
Thanks all for the great responses . . . including the Texas snowman!
Patti

Pattioh, it sounds like a horizontal version of a toboggan. Anyway, it must be outlawed, because toboggans are outlawed...too many injuries as you know!

As for me...sled or saucer...I choose neither. Sleds don't go very fast, and saucers go too fast (they scare me!). I like to go tubing! It's fast but sturdy, and it doesn't hurt your butt like a saucer (you feel everything on those things!).

Saucer when I was younger. Then the sled which we now attach to the tractor and have someone pull me around with g'kids in my lap. Or x-country skis for going down to the road to get the mail.

We got 11 inches of more snow last night and today. Watched it from my warm cozy chair...I love being retired.

georgeanne

Sleds don't go very fast

Oh, I beg to differ, laddie. 'Tis true that sleds are all but useless on snow, but find a nice long snowplowed driveway and you'll be feeling the wind in your teeth as you grin from the sheer joy of it. And they have the advantage of being steerable, whether you are doing a classic belly-down run, or sitting up and steering with your feet.

At least that's how I fondly remember things. We also had saucers and a toboggan that we used in the deeper snow. When there was a good crust on the snow, that toboggan would go like a bat out of a very hot place. We would travel about two hundred yards, run a gauntlet of big old apple trees and then travel another few hundred yards until we ended in a shallow frozen ditch that was the last stop before the road. We found that you could steer a toboggan by leaning, but it turned like the Queen Mary: not very fast. You had better plan turns in advance.

Patti - I've never heard of a rip, but it sounds like a blast, especially with two layers of kids on it. What could go wrong?

Georgeanne - regarding your last four words... me too!

ThinMan

Well, there are advantages to living in the Great White North - we can all remain childish, should we so desire, and if it ends badly, we have medicare...lol.

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Great ways to enjoy the winter. Did it all in my youth!!!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: A blog about sledding.

S-lad, I've never seen one, but yes, it seems like the rip was like a horizontal toboggan, only with runners like a sled. I could have sworn I saw toboggans for sale around here within the past week. Are they really outlawed???

Lucky you with those grandkids, G'feffa!

LOL Nancy, I prefer to think of it as child-LIKE.
Where was the bottom photo taken?

ThinMan, you pretty much described my memory of tobogganing: bat-speed, QM steering and all. Our little dachshund, "Kimmie", would always manage to jump on with us at the last minute, barking his head off all the way down, ears streaming out in the wind. He was so short that the snow was almost always over his head and impossible for him to walk in, so he would have to jump, jump, jump through the snow until one of us would put him on the toboggan and pull him up the hill. We didn't go out on the toboggan very often because as you said ThinMan, it was a looong ride after you got to the bottom of the hill, which meant a long, difficult trek back up the hill, and it was heavy to pull too! The saucer didn't go as far, but you got in a lot more rides in an afternoon.
Patti

Pattioh - that is the Rideau Canal, the longest outdoor skating rink in the world. About where this photo is taken, you are opposite the University of Ottawa (to your right) and just south of Parliament Hill. The buildings you see past the bridge are 1st, the old rail station, now the Conference Centre, and the towers are the venerable Chateau Laurier, the best hotel in town!!!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Rideau Canal

Ironically, I've gone sledding more as a grownup than I ever did as a kid! We had one of those classic Radio Flyer sleds with the metal rails, but all we ever did was pull each other around our incredibly flat yard. There may have been sledding hills around, but we never went.

Flash ahead to adulthood - late 20's. A whole group of friends went to the huge sled hill at the Indiana Dunes. Now, that was an experience! Dh and I ended up picking up cheap saucers for that experience, and we hung onto them. At our 1st house, we had a little drop from the front to back, and we used our saucers when ds was little. Then, we moved to a house without a real drop at all. Dh made tiny snow hills when he shoveled a couple of times, but that was it.

Then, we realized that one of the local parks had a very nice sledding hill - unsupervised, but set up to block some of the more dangerous obstacles, etc. We've gone a couple of times this year with the kids. In the meantime, we acquired an inflatable type of saucer (blew into our yard, and we don't know who it belonged to). That doesn't go nearly as quickly as the saucers, but it does help cushion you from the major moguls that built up!

And, I beg to differ that kids nowadays don't sled - I saw plenty of kids out on that hill!

We didn't have sleds when we were kids but many of our friends did and they were always willing to share space on them with us. I think I did more sledding and tobogganing in high school than I did as a younger child. My kids had a fine hill to sled on next to our house and sled they did though the rest of the kids in the neighborhood usually declined to. The Rancher and my daughter still sled to this day (though we've had no snow this winter) and they ice skate on various ponds and on the river once they've all frozen over. Lots of the neighbors and their kids come around to join in when we send a shout out that we are forming a sledding party or skating party. It's great fun for all! Personally we prefer saucers. Get a few people on a large saucer and you never know what will happen next!!

I'm loving, reading, all these great stories!

Toboggans are still being sold online by Toys-R-Us, Cabelas, and other stores.

MeMo

Here is a link that might be useful: Toboggan Sales