Ah, the Flexible Flyer… the state of the art snow sled in 1889 and still the best choice for an authentic, sturdy, steerable sled!
We love the, er, selling points in the vintage ad pictured above:
“The Christmas gift every live girl and boy wants! Saves shoes, prevents colds, and saves doctor’s bills, because you don’t drag your feet in steering.”
Those two sentences make us wonder, first of all, what the, um, not live girls and boys want for Christmas… and second of all, did they end up that way because they didn’t have Flexible Flyers when they went sledding?
We’re ordering ours right now, just to play it safe.
Not everyone had the pleasure of growing up where it snowed in the wintertime, but perhaps you traveled to cooler climes for fun or to visit family when you were a kid. Did you go snow sledding? Did you have a Flexible Flyer, and if not, how did you survive on a lesser sled?
Share your childhood snow sledding memories in the comments section, as we tip our hats to one cool sled that has withstood the test of time.
We had sleds and taboggins. I can’t remember the name.
As adults a few times on new years eve we went sledding at a park out in the country. Started at about 11 and stayed out till 2. Actually was a fun way to celebrate.
Bringing in the new year with a few fast slides down a snowy slope sounds like a blast, Peggy! Good fun!
We lived near a golf course, which became the sledding mecca of the neighborhood. Flexible Flyers were the sleekest and fastest way down the hill!
Yeah I had one of those went like crazy but just try to cut of a toboggan and your runners would fold up underneath you never to slide again.
Nonetheless tons of fun
Beat this. Our town’s only hill worthy of sledding down had the pleasant sounding moniker of “Poop Hill”. It was a hill basically on top of a sanitation plant. Oddly enough, it never really smelled much while sledding. The brisk winter air must have masked the aroma.
My grandparents bought a Flexible Flyer for my uncle during the 1920′s. Three generations of our family used it until the 1970′s, after which it was hung on a wall. Unfortunately it was destroyed in a house fire in 2012.