Past, Present and Future?

1982-2015

Yesterday, my son-in-law, Roland, emailed me pictures of his sons sled riding. It immediately triggered memories for me. I knew that that particular sled had been photographed many times over the years and that it had special memories for me from my own childhood.

A Flexible Flyer sled,
 from 1936, within the
permanent collection of
 The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Credit: Wikipedia

When I was a child, one of seven in my family, we had three wooden sleds of various sizes that we shared among us. At some point, I inherited the one pictured above. It was in pretty rough shape.

Fast-forward to 1982 and I was a single parent to Elizabeth and had recently started dating my now husband, Bill Reed. Bill had some skills, and I wanted to have him rehab the sled for Liz at Christmas. Bill replaced a couple of the boards and varnished the whole thing. We also wrote to the company that made the sled and they provided us with a new "Flexible Flyer" decal. The first two pictures on the upper left include Bill, me and Liz when we gave the sled to her. I'm sure it meant more to me than it did to her. It brought back memories of my Dad.


When our first grandson, Ian, came along, we decided to pass it on to him. I cherish the picture of Bill with Ian making final adjustments to the sled. It snowed here in Cincinnati, and Liz, Roland and Ian took advantage of the fresh snow with the old sled. Ian, in the pictures with the brown hat, delighted in this new experience -- as did Grandma with camera in hand.

So on January 31st, 2015, new pictures arrived in my inbox. Andrew, pictured on the bottom right in a blue hat, clearly loved his ride on the sled. Pictures of Ian on the "new" green plastic sled were also included, as well as a couple of videos. I guess I'm sentimental, but these traditions mean far more to me than any other kind of gift. On this date, I am grateful for my many blessings.