Thinking about busted sleds...I just remembered something! Back in 91, my little Daughter was 10yrs old...Theres this one fancy ski hill in a wealthy town nearby, they didnt 'allow' sledding...We were poor, but I had a sheet of 4X8 1/8 used paneling laying out in the garage that I pulled off a wall doing a remodel.....
One Winter day, on a whim, I took my circular saw and ripped it down to 32" width, took some scrap 1x6x8 and quickly beveled up curved side rails, some drywall screws, 10 minutes of effort and BOOM! A coccamamie toboggan kind of sled!
So me and my little girl hauled it onto the rich kids ski hill early on a Sunday morning before anybody was around, still dark out...We pulled it to the top...I said, "OK, hop up front and lets give this a go"...Even at the tender age of 10, she was familiar with my adventures...In this experiencial wisdom, She said, "No! You go in front"...
So, being brave and up to a challenge, I did...she sat behind me as we went off that hill...I figure we were going 60mph about halfway down, we hit a jump and got air, and then accelerated to 90, we came roaring down there on the bottom flat on this sheet of paneling at ludicrous speed...My eyes were frozen wide open, my girlish screams were slammed back into my lungs, somewhere in time, Death awaited and giggled......
Then, through the wax paper fog of my frozen eye balls, here was the warming house rapidly approaching in front of us! I bravely baled off to one side and My Daughter, on her own accord followed my brave lead did the same! BOOM! That sled hit the warming house at 110!
Like a runaway freight train! It exploded in a shower of splinters and dry wall screw shrapnel! We both luckily spun off to either side, skidded around on our backs and wound up in the parking lot...laying there watching the scraps of our sled rain down out of the sky like beetle bug lignum! Not knowing yet if we were alive or dead or if this was just a dream...Going that fast, it took a few minutes for Time and reality to catch up to us...
So then we went on home...Momma never even knew we were gone...good thing too...that was a hell of a sled wreck though!...I dont think I lost any money out of the deal, skidding around in the aftermath...like I said, in those days, we were pretty piss poor with nothing in our pockets to lose!
Mud