It's almost like I can't remember it not snowing - it has snowed every day for the last seven days. At least the kids can enjoy it, I thought, until I read in the paper yesterday some states are actually considering banning sledding. Or at least making it the law to wear a helmet while on a sled. Can you believe it? The best memories I have of winter are sleigh riding, especially at night.

Beacon had designated certain streets as "play streets". These were usually steep hills and as a play street were not plowed and were closed to car traffic. We were lucky that Master's Place, one of the play streeets, was right near by. It was at the end of a series of less steep hills that snaked down from Falconer Street to Liberty. As soon as we had a heavy snow, we all met at the corner, bundled up, pulling our sleds, ready to go.

There were two ways to ride down the hill. You could sit up and steer with your feet, kind of clumsy because this was a job your feet were not used to. Or the preferred way, on your belly, steering with your hands. Also, this increased the speed of the trip, or at least it seemed that way. Sometimes, especially at night, the older kids would make a "train", attaching all the sleds (each sled how a rope on it to tow it back up the hill with) and making one hell of a dangerous ride. You could catch your fingers or feet between the sleds. Also, as the sleds gained speed, some one would turn over, causing all those sleds in back of it to tip as well.

Sometimes you rode two or three to a sled, sitting one behind the other, the designated driver the only that could see where you were headed. The ride was fast, and the walk back up the hill seemed to take forever, as you had to keep dodging the sleds that were coming down.

Yankee magazine had an article about sleds, saying that sledding goes back centuries to when the Roman soldiers would use their shields to go down hills in battle. In our country sleds were mostly used to haul timber, ice and supplies until the mid 1800's when sleds were manufactured for recreation.

Our kids had sleds and a tobaggan that was a family Christmas gift for all four of them. They sled over at Mimi's, off of Boyd road. Good thing there was not much traffic, because the hill shot them right across Clay Hill into the woods. The tobaggan was used in back of Mary's house, now Tink and Irene's. They would go off with our neighbor Tony for hours on that hill. I remember one time when they were sledding, Tony knocked on the door and asked for Joel. Joel listened to him and quickly got on his coat and followed him up the hill. Tony had told him that Maria was hurt, not talking, but was all right by the time he reached her - just had the wind knocked out of her. Oh yeah, it had its dangers, bloody noses from bumping the head in front of you, black and blue marks from hitting the snow hard, but that was all part of it.

Rereading this post, I am beginning to see the point. Maybe it is too dangerous. Like diving boards. All the high diving boards have been removed from local pools. But those diving boards, and the fast sleds were "rites of passage" moving you from little kid to big kid, little hill to big hill. Building your confidence, your self esteem. So go on and sleigh ride. Tomorrow's March and this snow can't last forever.