When I decided that I wanted to focus on MAKING this month, I immediately thought of my dad. He has always been a maker and he has always had a creative mind. He worked as a welder, making things day after day at his job. Often, he would bring home things he had crafted when he was at work. It was cool to see what he did when was away. Then he would spend the rest of his days at home making things. I remember him spending time out in the garage working with wood or spending time in the kitchen cooking. He has never been the type to follow a plan or a recipe. When something needed to be made, he just found his own way to do it.
My favorite memories of something he made were the sledding hills he would create in our back yard each winter. It was so much fun to go whizzing down the hill in our backyard. Along with that, it was awesome to see his excitement and to have a window into his childhood. I’m so grateful he took the time to make that sledding hill each year, and that he continues to do it. My kids sure have an awesome grandpa.
Thank you to my dad, Joe Trombley, for sharing his story about making those sledding slopes each winter.
My love for sledding started when I was very young. I remember the first time I went sledding at our first house. My mom took cardboard, cut it up, gave us each a piece and said, “Don’t slide in the street.” We lived across from Honeywell at the time and there was a lot of traffic.
When we moved to Wyoming, MN, on the other hand, we had a lot less traffic and a lot of hills to work with. Sledding seemed to be the favorite winter pastime for many of the kids in the neighborhood. We had so much fun.
Then one year, after a four inch snow fall, we found that our sleds were having a hard time getting through the deep, fluffy snow. We got the idea to create a slalom in our friend’s back yard. Using our shovels, we starting creating a path to slide down with banks and jumps. That winter we spent more time designing the slide than we did actually going down it! It was great fun until the warm sun melted it in the spring. The next year when winter set in we started all over again with a new slalom and new ideas.
Naturally, when my kids were old enough, I wanted to pass on my love for sledding to them. And we had the perfect yard for it. The back yard had a long hill down to a lake. All we needed to make it work was snow!
Tom sledding in our back yard.
We enjoyed going down the hill during family gatherings.
The kids were the perfect age to really get excited about the sledding hill the year the infamous Halloween snowstorm hit. Needless to say, I went a little crazy. We had a deck on our house, so I said, “Let’s go off the deck!” There was also a large picnic table on the deck and the kids responded, “Let’s go off the picnic table!” That slide went something like this: A sharp drop off the table, directly down seven steps, hard bank on the left, hard bank on the right, circle around the pine tree, and back up the yard toward the house. From there they could walk right back up and do it again. Success!
Tom, Megan, Tara, and Kellie the night of the Halloween snowstorm.
The day after Halloween. Snow everywhere!
As with all success stories, you want to do it again and you want to do it better. So started the winter tradition of making a sledding hill off the deck – weather willing. It was great to revive this pastime from my childhood. Throughout the years I have tried many different routes, banks, and jumps. I have even used a snowblower in my back yard to collect all the snow and have used materials such a plywood to support the banks, when needed.
Even after the kids grew up, and before having grandkids, I would make a sledding hill if we had a generous snowfall. The grownups had a lot of fun with it during family gatherings.
Our dog, Teddy, checking out one of our sledding hills.
Now I share this love with my grandkids. The last hills have been a slower, gentler ride.
I’m just getting them ready for the years to come.
~ Joe Trombley