Right now, it seems, every elementary school child in Westport is sledding or tubing on the snowy hills in the middle of downtown.
So much for the myth that kids today never put down their electronic devices.
Of course, 30 years from now, those now-grown parents will say to their own children, “Put down your intelliport! When I was your age, I played all day in this amazing blizzard….”
the pictures do brighten up this rather dreary day…thanks, Dan
Joyful.
Don’t they make Flexible Flyers any more? Or am I just showing my age?
Or, metal flying saucers? (is there a Walmart at the bottom of the hill?)
Bobbie: I asked the same question, Our Flexible Flyers are in my garage…I bring them out at Christmas adorned with a red ribbon to put outside my front door and back doors. A friend told me: “You could probably take that sled to the Antiques Roadshow complete with the clothes line pull! I wonder what the kids on the street think?
Many fun memories of tobogganing down hills at Birchwood Country Club on King’s Hwy No. back in the day.
Geez, I shoulda saved my old-school sledding apparatus from the 70’s! Probably worth something these days – or, if nothing else, makes for great vintage decor, as Katherine mentions doing herself in this post.
Dan, are these your photos? Great stuff!! Makes me happy and wanting to be a kid again, on a snow day in Westport! Plus, I got a Dickinson-esque vibe from that first pic. Something about the kids strewn about over the landscape in a relaxed feel of years gone by.
Or maybe more of a Monet or Renoir type of feel – colorful “dots of tots”, along a slope.
Well, sometimes pinpointing a feeling can’t be described, but this is fun nonetheless.
Thanks Dan – you rock!
Thanks, Sharon. Yep, they’re photos (from my trusty iPhone!). The colors really were something — I really didn’t do the scene justice. As always, you can click on the photos (or hover over, depending on your browser) to enlarge them.
Yep, and enlarge them, I did … iPhone style, that is.
Someone should do an abstract oil of that pic … Miggs perhaps?
Heck, I’d do it, but I’m not currently equipped, studio wise, to pull it off. Finances, ya know?
Crowd source this one : what is the best public hill in town? My vote Staples back lot (on a tray from the cafeteria!)
When I was a kid, the hill by the Staples football field (near Bedford) used to be our sledding spot. During an ice storm, we made it all the way across the football field to the opposite fence. Of course, that was before the entire field was enclosed.
Staples “double hump” hill for us too, but that was mostly a proximity thing (like you). Just had a chat about this with some Townie friends I ran into at Winslow (!) and it seems one’s sledding hill choice back in the day seemed to be neighborhood dependent. Birchwood for the Saugatuck folks, Staples for the northern Westporters, (and Aspen for Greens Farms people)
Birchwood was always a great spot – my Mom took me there often for some harrowing sledding experiences (from a kid’s point of view, that is). It happened to be the most convenient location from our house, in Old Hill, at the time.
I believe I also sledded the Staples hill, the Bedford/Kings Highway hills, and others that I can’t recall at the moment!