Growing Up West of 100th Meridian

On another occasion, while still stationed on top of the mountains, some of the fellows and I decided to go down to the little village situated about two miles from where we were stationed. The only way we knew how to get to the village was walk. As we pondered the situation, we noticed some of the German boys going down the mountain on their sleds. We walked over and asked if they knew of any transportation down the mountain and they replied they would take us down on their sleds for a package of gum. I believe we were all a little reluctant to ride those two miles with boys only nine to twelve years old, but one of us decided he would go and the rest, not to be out done, picked his driver and sled. These kids knew how to drive a sled even if they were young. They instructed us to be sure to keep our feet on the rails since they would be using their feet to guide the sled. It was all of two miles and only took two minutes to reach the bottom. I could compare this ride with my experience on the roller coaster at the Texas Centennial. As we began picking up speed right away, I asked myself, what have I gotten into this time? In the two miles we traveled, the descent must have been at least two thousand feet. Down the mountain we went, reaching speeds of sixty and seventy miles an hour, going around curves and seeing the tops of trees well below the road we traveled. On one bend of the road I remember a large fallen tree stretching across the path. The next thing I remember was ducking under this huge tree picking up more speed as we passed heading for the bottom. All kinds of thoughts went through my head. Would this boy be able to stop this sled at the bottom or would we have to turn into a snow bank like I did while skiing? I soon found out. As we neared the bottom, the young driver began putting on the brakes, (digging his heels in the snow) until the sled came to a complete stop. All I can say is “What a Ride”! When we paid our drivers, we went on down to the village and they began climbing back up the hill for another ride down. I am sure it took them all of an hour to get back up that mountain. This ride turned out to be the topic of conversation for most of the day. We all agreed if we returned to the village, we would walk down the mountain.