There’s no doubt that Winter downsized itself this year into a wimpy, unworthy season causing many unhappy snow bunnies.  I always say that I am one of ten people in Midlothian who like winter better than summer.  Everyone else loves summer.  Thank goodness we had a token snowstorm Sunday night which painted a nice picture with about 4 inches, but it all melted by 4 PM the next day.  Now we are sweatin’ to the seventies (degrees) for a few days.  Daffodils are dancing.

On Sunday, a snow-related photo on Facebook posted by an Always Known Friend (AKF) gave me the secure feeling I needed to keep a perfectly good winter item safe from a downsizing yard sale or Ebay sale.  My AKF posted a photo of her pristine Lightning Glider sled, and I now know that my very own original Lightning Glider, which hangs on the wall in our utility shed, must go to Chicago.  I cannot part with it.

My Lightning Glider, made by the The Standard Novelty Works of Duncannon, PA, was purchased for me sometime around preschool age.  My parents got a long sled for me so I “could grow into it.”  My father pulled me around on it before I was old enough to operate it myself.  Four little kids fit in sitting position for group sledding.  In later years, I remember stack planking at least 3 or 4 of my friends on the sled for preteen hormone-charged night sledding.  The sled weighs quite a bit with its steel running blades and solid wood construction.  I carved my initials with a wood burning pen (remember them?) into a bottom support slat and also wrote my initials on the front with a magic marker.  I think I was paranoid about loss when we piled our sleds together to take a break.  The sled still looks good today and has the original pulling rope!

Then my son used the sled when he was a boy.  It was not the newest or sleekest model at the time, but it still did the job.  We had more snow in Richmond back in the day and Kamikaze boy action, but the Lightning Glider withstood another kid’s mistreatment and exuberant joy.

At this point, I need to point out that my family’s love of sledding progressed and continued in trips to Switzerland where sleek, fast “sledges” and the world’s longest Alpine sled runs are completely out of the Lightning Glider’s limited ability.

Ah, but remember that we are moving to Chicago.  I can see pulling little kids on the Lightning Glider up our street to Roscoe Village for hot chocolate at Starbucks.  Heck!  I can see little kids pulling me up the street in my doddering old age.  There’s no doubt – the sled’s a keeper.