james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2016-02-11 08:42 pm

Wee!




My grade school north of St Agatha had a nice tall toboggan hill at the foot of which was what is now call Notre Dame Dr. Even then, it could be a busy road. No worries, though, because between the road and the hill was a nice sturdy barbed wire fence.
mmegaera: (Default)

[personal profile] mmegaera 2016-02-13 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
Wee or whee?

[identity profile] seth ellis (from livejournal.com) 2016-02-12 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Following on your subject line, I feel like there's a joke here to be made about a Scottish person looking at this toboggan run and thinking it's not that big a run, really, but I can't get at it. It does make me think of this Robin Williams routine (https://youtu.be/mwzFagy7i3E), which was linked to by every Scottish Facebook friend I have after his death.

[identity profile] w. dow rieder (from livejournal.com) 2016-02-12 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
That Robin Williams routine is one for the ages. 8-) But the toboggan run reminded me more of all the Calvin and Hobbes sled comics, especially the aftermath one, where they are hiking out, sans sled and covered in snow:

"That was some ride"
"I'll say."

"I've never seen a sled catch fire before."
"We're lucky the pond hadn't frozen."

[identity profile] ironyoxide.livejournal.com 2016-02-12 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)
>between the road and the hill was a nice sturdy barbed wire fence.

I remember being young and immortal. You can still see the stitches.

[identity profile] icecreamempress.livejournal.com 2016-02-12 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"Whee!" I think, as this is not a small toboggan run, and yet not large enough to be pants-wettingly terrifying.

I broke my collarbone sledding into a thoughtfully placed stone wall myself.

[identity profile] james-nicoll.livejournal.com 2016-02-12 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I broke my tailbone coming down on a toboggan slat after a jump.

[identity profile] awesomeaud.livejournal.com 2016-02-12 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
The toboggan hill in my home town had a railroad track at the bottom....

[identity profile] dionysus1999.livejournal.com 2016-02-12 07:39 pm (UTC)(link)
The local ridge in my hometown was unfortunately was a bit close to the road, we've had several sledders get hit by cars. Pretty sure it's all fenced off now.

[identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com 2016-02-12 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
We had an area that was a power-company right-of-way, cut clear of trees, with a fairly large hill on either side and a little stream filled with jagged rocks at the bottom. Not going into the stream was one's paramount goal. We managed this probably more than half of the time.


[identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com 2016-02-12 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
My personal favored vehicle was a genuine Flexible Flyer that my father had personally reassembled after finding it smashed and abandoned in a pile of pieces, which probably should have been a warning. Part of it was held together with electrical tape, which made it even more flexible.

In any event, it was both much faster and vastly more controllable than the molded plastic toboggans and saucers that most kids had at the time. Though it was no good on soft new snow.

[identity profile] viktor-haag.livejournal.com 2016-02-13 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
You went to school in Rummelhart? I thought you went to North Wilmot?

[identity profile] james-nicoll.livejournal.com 2016-02-13 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Two room schoolhouse in Josephsberg for grades 2, 3 and part of four, a public school whose name I forget for 5,6, something something for 7 and 8 and WODSS for high school. I have not had coffee yet, can you tell?