As far as sledding, where there's a will, there's a way

Watching video of my two great-nephews on a sled ride across their pasture in Oklahoma following last week’s snowstorm brought back memories.

In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t get a lot of snow in this part of the country. Even when we do there’s no hill for sledding anyway. In the country, kids find a way, however.

My dad always told of sledding behind a pickup or tractor on top of a big old car hood turned upside down. I suppose that would work and you could probably pile every kid in the neighborhood on top of something like that, but I don’t recall ever sledding on a hood.

I do remember one snow day when Dad loaded everyone up in the car and we drove through the snow to my cousin’s house in Bovina for sledding. My uncle was a well-trained welder and even taught the trade in high school shop, so he had a top-notch two-person sled ready to go. He also had an old Willy’s Jeep tuned up and ready to pull the thing.

We had a blast in the pasture with him and my dad pulling us kids on that sled two at a time. He also had a cowhide and we tried our hand at skijoring without the horse pulling us. That was a little harder than most of us could handle and resulted in spectacular spills.

Finally, we coaxed my mom and aunt into loading up on the sled together for a ride. They feigned resistance but I really believe they wanted to go for a sled ride. Whether that was true or not, my uncle and dad were certainly excited to give the ladies a sled ride to remember.

It took a bit to get the Jeep wound up enough that they began to swing the sled out pretty wide on the turns. Finally centrifugal force and the men’s determination sent the sled sliding sideways enough to send the women tumbling. Probably the best spill of the day.

According to my mom and aunt once they stopped rolling they quickly decided to lay there motionless to get even and panic the men. It may have worked because they did a good job of maintaining their face-plant.

Once the acting job was over, we had hot chocolate and a good time the rest of the day.

There were other days behind a vehicle on sleds along country roads. We also spent a few of those rare snow days sliding on the only thing akin to a hill, the slopes of the lawn along Eastern New Mexico University’s Greyhound Arena.

These days they’ve banned sledding at Greyhound Arena and most moms wouldn’t sanction being towed behind a vehicle or 4-wheeler like these nephews. I’m glad they got the chance though and I’m glad they shared it with their old uncle.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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