Remember them?
Any stories to tell?

I can't remember the make of my sled, but it wasn't Radio Flyer. (If I would bestir myself and go out and poke around in the rafters of the garage, I could find out, but I'm in my jams and it's not warm out there.)
It was rather a disappointment to me as I grew. When I first got it, I was but a mere tad, and it had a metal, three-sided attachment that could be bolted on to keep me from toppling out. This hung in the garage at the first house we lived in for years, and eventually disappeared. I wish that I still had it. I vaguely remember Dad pulling me around on this, to my great delight.
As I got older, we had no hills close to us to slide down, so all of the pictures of kids flying down slopes were just a dream. One time a classmates parents organized a sledding party at their place, which had a suitable hill. The most memorable item from this was riding, from the farmyard to the field that held the hill, in a huge old bobsled and having it tip over and dump us all out when the driver took the turn into the field too short and dropped one side off the field entrance. Once we got sorted out, the kids with tobaggans went whizzing down the hill while those of us with sleds found outselves sinking into the snow and going nowhere.
When I hit eleven, I actually did get some fun out of the sled. We had a winter that kept the streets covered with snow packed down to ice. Dad attached a long rope to the sled, fed it through the back bumper on the '52 Buick Roadhog, and handed the end of the rope to me, with instructions to let it go, steer for the side of the road and into the snowbank if we met another vehicle.
When my son was small, we went on some (not enough) evening walks with me pulling him around the streets. I am waiting for the opportunity to do this with the grandsons (Dad pulling, of course, while I offer encouragement.)

Here where I live there was a runner sled company about 15 mins from me. They produced high quality runner sleds. Lightning Guiders, I have a few of them. In few inches of powder or ice pack with a coat of paraffin wax and they would fly. We haven't used them in 2 years or so but when the weather is right and time allows it's always a joy to get them out.

Don't remember the make but remember wood and steel. It was ice we looked for, pure snow was slow, for skiers, we ran on steel and wanted ice.

When I was in grade school, two brothers worked for two days shoveling sidewalks. They went to the hardware store and bought the biggest one they had. They rushed out to the sledding hill in town and both jumped on for a ride. There was a slight upturn at the bottom of the hill, over a small ditch. When they landed the sled runners folded under their combined weight. I guess those sleds aren't designed for over three hundred pounds to land on them. They took their remaining money and bought plastic saucers.

I had a Yankee Clipper Flexible Flyer when I was a kid. Made out of wood and steel and that sucker would fly!

Damn.. Thinking about it kinda' makes me want to find one and zip down a hill again.

I remember my Radio Flyer wagon; Never had a sled, not much snow around these parts.

I was with Momma doing some Christmas shopping last month. A 2'nd hand store had two of them in good condition leaning up against a wall. A 48 inch and a 60 inch sled for $50 and $60.

I thought awful hard about taking one or both home with me for the grandkids. But hard pack snow is hard to find around here except on public hiways.

I was 5 when I received a "Lightening Glider" model sled made in my home town of Duncannon, PA and I still have it 60 years later. My grand kids love to ride it as much as I did.

One of the few toys I kept from my child hood.

Bloody fingers with matching slashes and bruising tools. Fun, though.

Yah, Flexible Flyer is what I remember as a sled.

Radio Flyer was a red wagon.

But that's just what I remember, not saying the OP was wrong.

Out here in California we had Flexy Racers (just Flexies, to us kids): wheeled, steerable "sleds".
Our favorite run was right down the middle of our street, from the top of the hill to the dead-end barricade at the bottom. There was one narrow driveway at the very end of the road, and the game was trying to make that right angle turn; at nearly full speed, considering the lousy brakes. Failure meant some nasty road rash and extricating from the oleander bushes, with perhaps a good slam into the wooden barricade if one hadn't even gotten off the roadbed.
Just flying down the street was an adventure in itself, as the road wasn't smooth macadam but some tarred rock thingy. Talk about getting the jitters; this was it for real!

I had a wood n steel sled when I was a kid. I think I found it in a old shed at my pops old home place. I have no idea what brand it was but on a hard packed snow or ice cover road with a steep grade I swear I think it would do 35 mph. I would fly by all the people on the plastic sausers and plastic sleds like they were sitting still. I miss those days. Now when we get snow it never lays on the roads because they salt ever flippin inch of road around here.

I remember when I was a kid and the hill going to the upper part of the neighborhood would get bad it was a grand event. There would be at least 50-75 people out there sledding, parents included! At the top of the hill the people that owned a corner lot would build a big fire and all the people would come and go around the fire, staying just long enuff to warm up and roast a marshmallow that someone furnished. It was a really fun time and neighbors were better, friendly, not anti social back then. I sure miss those days. One of my fondest memories.

I still have mine that was handed down from my mother. It is a Flexible Flyer American Eagle, no use for it in Fl of course but nostalgia keeps me hanging on to it.

We had a hill out in Highland Park on the east side of Joliet called "Snake Hill", it was a twisty road that they blocked off when it snowed and kids from miles around used it.

At the bottom of the hill and across the main road in the park was Hickory Creek. Hickory Creek would freeze over and we would ice skate on it, the Park District even had a small brick building with a coal stove in the middle of it with a rail and benches around it, that was a "warming house" for the skaters and sledders. They even provided an attendant to keep the stove going till 10:00 PM on weekends and 8:00 PM weekdays.

Fond memories indeed of a better time and place.

The sled was Flexible Flyer of course.
Anyone have a dog that rode along?
That might be more on a toboggan.

Yep, Flexible Flier was the sled. Radio Flier the wagon

Let's get our nomenclature down before we waltz down memory lane shall we?

Flexible Flyers kick ass! Gotta let all the peasants on their disks and tubes sled for a week or two though. Little bit of thaw and re-freeze? Hauling ass!


Travis

In high school, my friend had an old car and I had a sled. We'd go up in the hills north of Boise and drive the single track roads on the sagebrush covered hills. We'd chain up the car, tie a water ski rope on the rear bumper, and take turns pulling each other on the sled. We were totally insane. 40 to 50 mph on those roads even when dry was nuts and we were doing it pulling a sled.

There weren't many big hills in Illinois farm country, but we did find places to ride a Flexible Flyer. I vividly recall two aspects of them: If you rode them face down and steering with your hands, you'd go faster but you'd fly right off and smash your face when it came to a sudden stop. And after that, you rode it sitting and steering with your feet - but got called a pansy for doing it that way. The RIGHT way was to run a few steps down the hill, fling the sled down and flop on it. Afterwards, you'd trudge back up with the fresh blood congealing on your face...

I still got mine, had a ball with that thing.

ROSEBUD

Mine didn't come with a ball.


Travis

I did, Two.

This is my sled.
Not great picture, and the sled is old.

Good God! Did you steal it from ingwe? That thing looks older than the moon.



Travis

Remember jerking the sled out from under your body and turning it sideways as a braking maneuver?

Doing so would stop you in a heart beat. But as a habit, it guaranteed the sled would never become an heirloom.

I too grew up in an area of CA that rarely received snow (actually one town over from macrabbit) and owned a "Flexie" as well. We lived at the bottom of a hill where if you started a run from the very top, it was a good mile to the bottom and you could nearly hit what seemed like terminal velocity on the thing. At the bottom of the hill, the road turned sharply to the right so you had to make sure you had scrubbed off enough speed to make the turn. The sled had rudimentary brakes but I recall some of us crashing through the neighbors hedge more than once. Thinking back, I'm surprised I survived my childhood.

That's the thing, alright!
I recall many fun hours lying on my tummy (when I, the youngest, could wrest one of our Flexies away from my older brothers).

It sure is not a new sled.

we wore them sleds out as kids ..spent many a hour with steel wool and wax (mom's dinner center pice candle,don't rat me out!) with the slick runners it was fun to see how fast/far we could run them....I got on one a few years back ..ouch ...could use some springs and a pad on them now!!

Did you (or brothers) ever remove the springs from the steering bar to increase steering sensitivity?

Sure do, my grandad rebuilt one for me, that was in 1947. At the time I was living with my mom's mom and dad at the time they were living in Cheney, WA.

I remember one morning getting to the street that was closed off for the kids to sled on. At the bottom of the hill the city every morning put fresh gravel on the snow to stop the sleds from sliding across the cross street at the bottom of the hill, that street was also was old US 10 the main cost to coast highway. Well I jumped on my sled and down the hill I went, when I got to the bottom there wasn't fresh gravel or sand so I took the ride across US 10, it was a wonder that I get killed or badly injured as I got lucky I hit a lull in the traffic.

Mayhap not intentionally; but I recall them missing, at least in their later days.

Still have the Flexible Flyer. Lots of fun and many bumps n bruises from that thing. Now the wife uses it for decoration out on the porch. Women...go figure.

Heard they were starting to gain traction in the collectors market. I'm keeping mine.

My sled was a Silver Streak.

I don't know how many trees I hit with that thing, but My dad finally replaced the front half-moon bar with a piece of 3/8" X 1 1/2" flat bar. I had the roll-off mode perfected so never was on the sled when it actually hit the tree but I was usually traveling at a good rate of speed while having fun dodging the trees in the woods behind our farm.

I don't know what happened to that sled, but I saw one a couple of years ago and nearly choked at the price tag.

We also had another sled that was a "Champion" brand that my siblings use. It was longer and not quite as nimble as my shorter one.

LOL, And we all wonder why we have those aches and pains.

I have a real nice Silver streak hanging in my garage.

You can still buy them new.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&am...b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9n00ba43cc_b

Most ace hardware stores carry them, as well. But not at those prices.

I remember the "Western Flyers" we got at the Western Auto store on Main Street. We'd haul those things up some of NorthCentral Missouri's hills and ride the heck out of them. I always liked them a lot better than the 'saucers' some of the other kids had. We had a big hill out in the pasture that was pretty good for sled riding, and with cow paths dug into the dirt, we had ready-made ramps for some jumps, too. Oftentimes, though, we'd have to bail off to avoid the deep ditches at the bottom of the hill, which might have been 6' deep.
Usually, if we bailed off in time, the sled would come to a stop before hitting the ditch. Getting the sled out of the ditch was a pain in the neck.

Made me go and dig it out of the garage rafters.

I loved mine!

This keeps you from having to walk back up the hill-


My 2 year old a year ago, middle board needs some repair-

We had a hill above the house, and a fairly steep 3 ft drop off in the yard. With a downhill run of 200 yds, you could really get some air when you hit that drop off. I busted the narrow side rail on my sled one time when I got a bit twisted and hit it with my hip bone on landing. We usually turned the corner around the house (or flipped the thing trying) to avoid the last short downhill and the township road.

As a side note, a friend rode one of the plastic sheets across the township road, under a car, under the electric fence and ended up in the pasture with the cows wondering where in the hell he had come from.

I think the sleds are still at my parents place, my grandsons will get to use them eventually.

Dale