saturday evening with mr t...

it's that time of the week . so without further ado , i give you mr t...

Winter Follies - Or: Now is the Winter of Our Disco Tent.

(Memories of Sliding downhill: Indiana St. and Bancroft Park, and snowmobiling at Old 27).


When we lived on indiana st. in Lansing MI from 1956 to 1965, i have vivid recall of fun sldinging down the hills in back of house in Bancroft Park and on the Golf Course. We would grease up our sleds and tobaoggans with candle wax with the neighbor kids and slide for what seemed like hours behind our house and to the left, where the path used to be. The road which has since been long turned into a trail (and not maintained anymore) used to run right behind our house at the bottom of the hill. It was a forested area, large trees and tall grass. The last winter we were there my dad had even gone to the trouble of mowing the tall grass down from outside of our wire fence to the road at the bottom of the hill.

One time I remember the kid down the block, Steve Slocum, had this extra long tobaggan and we would all pile on and some would fall off on the way. We had another steeper hill across the road coming fomr the opposite way onto the same road. There was a skinny tree we would have to avoid on the way down. we made it a few times, but once i was assigned to the back of the toboggan, push and hop on. i made it on but we all saw the tree heading straight for us. 3 out of five of us jumped off immediately-fortunately I was one of them. A kid named Ron and the other kid in front weren't so lucky and hit the tree. It sure is funny to hit a tree if you're not the one hitting the tree.

Just ask my brother. One day during December 1964, it snowed and we decided to try sledding after school (on a regular old fashion sled) on the other side of the property. There are big wide trees there, but you can make it down without much trouble-unless you don't know how to steer a sled. So Dan, being in Kindergarten, tried it and hit a tree dead on. He got ice from Grandma on his eyes, but wound up with two black eyes, which turned into yellow rings around his eyes. Thus living up to his old nickname "Dangerous Dan." The next day they took the Kindergarten Pictues. For years we had those photos and Dan would be reminded of "that day you hit the tree." In the 80's those photos mysteriously disappeared. My guess is Dan threw them out because he was tired of being razzed.

The new neighborhood across town had the street on a hill but it was too dangerous or well salted to slide down-we had to go to a local golf course to slide so we didn't do it very often. Too many mailboxes would jump in our way on the way down the street on a sled anyway.

Then came the 70's and snowmobiles. Uncle Vane first introduced to those with his Polaris which we rode up at Grandma,s and up on the Bayou in Oscoda when it was frozen. Then we got a SnowJet, in the late Fall of 1973, right after they built the new Hwy 10 access behind Paul Noss's property, so the land was all flattened and no weeds. The next year it grew weeds and tall grass, but was fun anyway. We also used to ram through the park across the street and up Beaverton Rd where the field was that we would ride.

By the mid 80's (say 1987) we were through with snow mobiling and Dad sold his second one, a Scorpion with a powerful Yamaha Engine in it. One reason was we no longer had the Old 27 property due to grandma's passing, and both Paul Noss and Rose were dead also. (That's when I think things started going to hell around that property anyway, in a few years. When you don't have the right people there it is not possible to keep it the same. We probably could not have snowmobiled there anyway.

Another reason was we were all getting older and should have been married with kids by then, but....well let's just say I was a late bloomer.

The Old 27 Property and surrounding area, plus the Indiana St./ Bancroft Park area and Groesbeck Golf Course area nearby, were Winter Wonderland Playgrounds. I took my kids sliding at Groesbeck Golf Course in Lansing, MI, (attached to Bancroft Park) and you could still slide down the famous "Flying Angel Hill." they called it the Flying Angel because you would sail off the edge and fly for few seconds before touching down. If you didn't land just right, you could become a real angel.

We have an old film from about Dec. 1960 of Hoovers, Timlin's and Mickles sliding down that golf course hill, and throwing snowballs at each other in Bancroft Park. Of course, I was only 4 years old about to turn 5.

My kids now have a hill they can slide down, down the block and I have taken them several times, and Delta Park in Lansing Delta Township where we used to live. We also used to have a hill on the side of our house in Lansing and all the neighborhood kids used to come and slide down that. The only things is I tend to freeze faster and get bruised easier, and heal slower than the kids.
Often I hear my own voice and other familiar voices from childhood
when I hear my own kids say "Come on, Dad, just one more time before we go! Oh please, just one more!" Then they wonder why I don't get off the couch for two days, except to get more ice from the freezer, as I grown in pain like my father used to, getting up off the couch. "Ohhhh...ahhhh....ouch...geeeze...Ohhh!"