As always this has not been proof read for errors.
I was probably about 17 years old. My transportation was a 74 Dodge pick up truck. The truck had a slant 6 engine with a three speed on the tree. It was equipped with a vinyl interior and radio with 8 track player. It’s list of standard features was what we called: “seat and heat.” It got me from point A to point B with absolutely no style whatsoever. The exhaust was partially missing so it sounded like it had straight pipes on it. There was nothing stealthy about this vehicle but by golly I was glad to have the transportation.
It was winter and school had been cancelled because of snow. We had about a foot of snow on the ground. Now at age 17, no school, snow covered roads and a drivers licenses, all that teen age boys can do is look for mischief.
Jimmy Gibson, Scott Haney and I decided to go sledding. The only decision to be made was where? Well, as fate would have it there just happened to be a new subdivision being built just a few miles away. We knew the subdisvision was in its early stages of development. The entire area had been laid out with paved roads completed. The building sites were surveyed and marked, and underground utilities had been installed. This would be a great place to go sledding. Sledding while being pulled by the truck at 30 m.p.h. We had a problem, we didn’t have a sled.
Jimmy Gibson’s dad was a private pilot who had developed a subdivision for airplane enthusiast around a landing strip. Jimmy’s dad was a serious private plane enthusiast with a lot of extra plane part in his basement. At that time most of the sleds were made of aluminum. An airplane wing is made of aluminum; it has a great shape for sledding so what more could you ask for? Off to Jimmy’s basement we scrambled and started hunting for a sled.
We found the perfect piece of airplane wing! Nice curve in the front, very smooth allowing for little surface tension, reinforcement with aluminum ribs for increased rigidity and about 3 feet long for comfort. We did discover two flaws; no handles and no place to tie a rope to it so it can be pulled behind the truck. Jimmy grabs a hammer and screwdriver and proceeds to punch three large holes in the front of the wing part. There you go, two holes for handles and one for the rope, a very long rope!
I don’t know if you have ever been to a new development like a subdivision but it is a large construction site. There are various types of pieces equipment, building materials and debris scatter throughout the area. In the case of this development the debris was covered by 12 inches of fresh snow.
By default Jimmy is the first to ride the sled, after all the sled is Jimmy’s since it belongs to his father. To save you the details of the slow start we had pulling the sled let me just say it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t daring enough. As with anything 17 year old boys will do we had to make it more exciting.
We were probably doing 30 m.p.h. when Jimmy hit the drainage pipe. He rolled about 15 feet through the snow. The sled jammed under the pipe just long enough for the rope to tear though the aluminum and almost decapitating Jimmy. I brought the truck to a stop and Scott and I went to recover Jimmy and the sled. The fun was over!
I don’t know how much an airplane wing cost 25 years ago but it must have been a lot. As we walk into Jimmy’s house his dad immediately recognized our makeshift sled for what it was; part of his “$%#@” airplane wing. The rest of the conversation included questions such as: “what the hell were you boys thinking” and “what part of using my airplane wing as a sled did you think was a good idea?” and “how did you punch holes in the wing and why would you do that?” Years later I would have my own boys and I would ask some of the same types questions …Karma!
Jimmy’s sentence lasted six weeks. Mr. Gibson never really talk to Scott or I after that.
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