Sledding on Warren Street

On Warren Street in the north end of Rockland there was a steep hill, and when snow storms clogged the streets, city plows could only handle the main thoroughfares. So, in the 1930’s, rather than fighting the snow, they closed it off. Warren Street in Rockland was one of those streets where its long hill made for great sledding and difficult plowing, so the town closed the street to traffic and let the kids have a place to slide. School would be canceled, and out onto the street would flood the kids with sleds. The Mills boys, along with all their neighborhood friends would slide down the street in whatever contraption that would slide. Wooden sleds with metal runners, sheets of scrap metal, toboggans, contraptions made from old horse drawn sleighs; you name it, some kid had adapted it for sledding. There was no such thing as plastic, so there were no cheap plastic sleds from Walmart. There was, however, the ubiquitous Flexible Flyer sled, whose models date from 1889 into the 21st century. Al and his friends would have ridden on a Flexible Flyer with wooden slats, an all steel front end, straight runners, as contrasted to the modern runners that curl up in the rear to join the frame. (The modern frame is considerably more safe for the kid in the sled behind, who might find himself impaled on the runner of his brother‘s Flexible Flyer), and a logo of an American Eagle carrying a sled. Bundled in woolens, with rubber packs on their feet covering several layers of Daddy’s woolen socks, and covered with beads of melted and refrozen snow, these kids would scream in joy, create games, and races, and tricks, and jumps. There was one old geezer, a grouch, as Al always referred to him, who didn’t like all the kids playing on Warren Street, so he took it upon himself to put an end to the shenanigans. He collected the ashes from his coal stove and scattered them onto the street in front of his house. Kids are undaunted by simple obstacles like that, and it wasn’t long before Al and his buddies had cleared spots and tossed snow onto the clinker until sledding was fast and furious again.