A Genuine Flexible Flyer
It was on every child’s wish list for Christmas, or at least on those lists where a kid didn’t have one. It was a Flexible Flyer Sled and “Look out hills, here we come.”
I think I was six when Santa squeezed a new sled down the chimney. That was quite a feat, considering we didn’t have a chimney, but somehow it showed up beneath the Christmas Tree that morning.
And what fun we had. It snowed a lot in the hills of West Virginia back in the 1950s. Sometimes drifts would come up to the roof of our house. Snow lingered on the ground for weeks and we were off to the downhill slaloms.
In those days, kids occupied the roads on snowy days. Cars got out of our way. We had the right of way, and we literally tore down the steep hills.
Sometimes we just flopped on our bellies and raced downhill, and sometimes we sat up and steered our sleds with our feet. Sometimes we doubled up on our sleds for downhill runs, but it was always fun.
A fellow named Samuel Leeds Allen patented the Flexible Flyer in 1889. Allen had a farm equipment factory and designed the sled to keeps his workers busy in the off season. He put them in his farm stores at first and they just sat there, but when he got them in toy stores, they flew off the floor. In 1915, some 120,000 Flexible Fliers were sold, and almost 2,000 Flexible Flyers were sold in one day.
Here is an early ad for the Flexible Flyers..
“The famous steering sled with non-skid runners. The Christmas gift every boy and girl wants. Saves shoes, prevents colds, and saves doctors’ bills because you don’t drag your feet in steering. Has grooved runners, which prevents skidding on ice and snow, and makes steering easy and safe. Outlasts three ordinary sleds.”
For us kids in the hills of West Virginia, there was only one option for a sleigh ride, and that was a genuine Flexible Flyer
