Fifty years ago today, the four-block 56th Street hill from Crestwood Boulevard turned into the best ride ever. Snow had begun falling on New Year’s Eve, and it just kept coming – ultimately dropping 8.4 inches on the city.
The sleds came out, and everybody in Crestwood headed straight for the big hill. Folks who weren’t lucky enough to have a real sled in the attic (let’s face it – sleds don’t get a lot of use in Alabama) improvised with garbage can lids, boxes and anything else you could sit on.
We were lucky, because while we didn’t have a sled of our own, my oldest sister was dating Lawrence Corley at the time, and the Corleys had a sled or two. We trooped through Crestwood Park and across Crestwood Boulevard, which didn’t worry Mom a bit. It was a busy four-lane that could be dangerous to cross, but not on this day. Nobody was going anywhere in a car. Besides, you couldn’t even tell where the street was. We hiked up the hill and found Lawrence and Hugh Corley, along with a lot of other friends, already breaking in the hill. The sledders quickly established two or three tracks where the snow packed down into ice, which allowed a sled to come down the speed at an incredible speed.
Especially if you had two or three people on the sled to add weight.
People who had rarely seen so much as a sprinkle of snow quickly became experts. After a few trips down the hill – followed by the long trips back to the top – we began to get tired, and our feet were numb. We walked back over to the Corleys’ house, where there was a big fire going.
Hugh located a cake of paraffin wax and set the sled in front of the fireplace for a few minutes to heat up the runners enough to melt the wax as he put it on. Soon, we were thawed out enough for another session on the hill. By this time, the grooves of ice were even better. The waxed runners on the hard ice let us get up so much speed it nearly scared us to death.
And as I recall, there were some accidents. I believe one of the neighborhood kids crashed and had some injuries, but I’m not sure about that.
I just know that it was one New Year’s Day I never forgot.
*Note: I’d love to add a photo or two to this post if anybody has pictures they took in that snow. Just let me know if you do.
