It's Snowing!

January 14, 2009

Ah, Midwest snow. For the past three winters I have seen little snow. If it did fall in Arkansas it always melted within a few days. I will admit that being in Marion, Indiana is not always the best place to be when it comes to winter recreation. Flat land is not very good for sledding. Fortunately, this is not the first time I had faced this problem. In college, snow came every year and so we headed to the only hill in town. Money is always scarce when you are a college student. As they say "necessity is the mother of invention". The cafeteria trays were a favorite of some but not my little group of friends. Where the idea originated I am not sure just one of those things that gets passed along do to the common need that arises every year. With the tradition of using what you have, trash bag sledding began.

Again, I am in that situation where I have very little money. But even if I had to the funds to buy everyone a sled, I wouldn't. I would still go out and buy a box of trash bags, the heavy duty ones. Of course, you might think. Trash bags are water resistant and have a nice slick surface. All you have to do is put one on the ground, take a seat, and have fun sliding down the hill. If you thought this, I commend you for your logic. But by doing this you are taking something that has only a few qualities in common with what you are trying to replace. For one thing, a trash bag isn't made of hard plastic. It is very flexible. Two, because you are just siting on top of a sled it is very easy for you to become disconnected with it as you fly down the hill. For the trash bag, that factor would be even worse because of it's slick nature with not only the snow on the ground but also the cloths that you are wearing. In order for the trash bag to be most effective, you have to become one with it. (oh I see the wheels turning). Yup, that's right. Poke three holes in the trash bag; one for the head, two for the arms and wear it proud!

Now the power to live the life of a penguin is closer than it ever been before. My favorite approach: get a running start and fly down the hill on my stomach. This positions offers great speed (especially if you arch your back creating as little contact with the ground as possible resulting in very little friction) and control. If you are about to run into someone at the bottom of the hill, stick your hands out in front of you and jam the toes of your feet into the snow putting on the breaks.

Now, I must warn you that this method WILL draw attention. When Matt, Lynette, Aletheia, Candice, and I headed out to the hill in our trash bags; head began to turn. I was the first to shoot down the hill, and as I was walking back up the hill I head someone yelling "Miss! Miss!". I turned my head to see the source of the shouts. A young boy pulling a sled even with me on his ascend back up the hill. "Is that a trash bag?" He asked. "Yes it is," I replied with great pride.

Later after witnessing us torpedo down the hill in several different ways, I found myself standing next to the young boy. "I am going to use a trash bag the next time I come," he told me. "Oh yeah?" I replied. "For three reasons," he continued. "One, the are free. Two, they are better. And three, they are just AWESOME." I smiled at him and thought I couldn't agree with him more.