A Winter Memory

What is a winter activity that costs nothing?  When I was the oldest of four children, it was sledding at Indian Hills;  gas up the station wagon, pack some sandwiches and the thermos of hot chocolate and off we went - with Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Jack, their son Tom right behind (or maybe in front of us, it was a LONG TIME AGO!)

And what was the most memorable part of this excursion - the cold, the thrills, the thermos of hot chocolate?  NO, it was the THREE dads bravely protecting the BIG PINE TREE at the bottom of the slope by deflecting the fast approaching sleds.  You might remember this era, prior to plastic saucers, when the sleds had metal runners and steering mechanism.  So the first piece of the sled to hit anything was the horizontal metal connecting the two runners!!   I can only imagine the cuts and bruises on those shins to avoid broken heads and necks of the various youngsters flying down that icy slope under the bright blue Colorado sky!!  THREE BRAVE DADS!

Did WE plan ahead for bathrooms?  Did we eat in the diner where we parked?  Of course not!  These were things that I tried to remember when WE owned a diner across from the hill we locals called SUICIDE HILL here in the Central Sierras.