It Is Sledding Time!!!

When I open my own mental trunk and think about sledding I remember living on Oakland Park Road. Our steep slope to the river was not developed but Hanson's, to the north about a block was. They had a road going to a barn which sat near the river's edge.

Now sledding and snow are not always compatible with sleds with runners, no matter how much one used waxed paper on the runners to make them fly! The snow needed to be hard for sleds. Although I have memories of pulling my runner sled up the hill and eating the chunks of snow off my mittens, what I remember most is Wenneberg's toboggan.

The toboggan was long, it would carry the Wenneberg kids, Jon, Dale, and Donnie; the Hanson kids, Gary and Lyle; and my brother Greg and me. It would fly down the hill on soft snow. The toboggan stopped just short of the river. I liked that someone else pulled it up the hill!

The last year I was allowed to believe in Santa Claus, he was to deliver a sled. The basement of the house had been remodeled. The laundry room was on the east; the recreation room on the west. The recreation room had a gas fireplace with an open back. One morning, I was sitting on the couch in the rec room listening to Bozo the Clown records. The sun was streaming into the laundry room windows bouncing off the wall behind the furnace and casting a shadow of sled runners. I went to investigate and found the sled!

In Kansas the sledding spot was Mount Oread, commonly called 'the hill'. If one flew over Lawrence in a plane, one would see the hill is a dividing point between the Wakarusa River and the Kansas, (Kaw) River. The ride was a long slope down from the University of Kansas World War II Memorial Campanile and Carillon to the football stadium below. It is said that college students borrowed trays from the kitchen to take a ride!

Bud and his friend Matthew liked to ride the runner sleds down Clifton Court when the street was icy. Clifton Court met 21st Street, which was a heavily used side street. We talked to Bud about this because it could have been fatal. He explained to us that near the end of the run, they would roll off the sled so they didn't go on to the busy street.

We are expecting company for Christmas. One of the things the father wants to do is take his daughter sledding at Dike West. The Dike was built because of the flooding of the Red River of the North. At the Dike, inner tubes are furnished. That saves the slope and one gets a faster ride.

Let's hope all of you have had the pleasure of sledding!

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