JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) - For generations, Southern Indiana’s hills have differentiated the area from the rest of its state, and, on snowy days at least, served as beacons to children and their families for winter fun.
Parents who remember dragging their metal sleds to the slopes on snowy days are now hauling their children and plastic discs to the hills instead.
In Jeffersonville, Chris Crawford took his wife, Jill and two sons, Emerson and Ty, to the hill behind the Howard Steamboat Museum along the river.
“When I was a kid, I used to do it by Parkview because they didn’t have it gated off,” Chris said.
As a teenager, though, he would come to the Howard Steamboat hill and slide down on the side away from the museum, where it’s steeper, building ramps with friends so as to launch themselves into the street.
Chris didn’t show his daredevil side on Saturday, though, instead encouraging his 6- and 4-year-old sons to barrel down the hill on the safer side.
It was their first time sledding, Chris said. The day before, the boys were stuck to their iPads, and Chris and Jill wanted to get them outside.
“They’re going to have more fun doing this, and plus they’ll probably go to bed a little earlier tonight, too,” Chris said.
Emerson and Ty raced down the hill over and over again on Saturday.
“It’s like I’m Flash now,” Emerson said.
In New Albany, families gravitated toward the flood wall near the river for their chilling thrill. The slope was mostly unpopulated on Saturday: a stark difference from what it’s usually like on snowy mornings, according to Linda Mathena, one of the few sledders of the day.
“It’s because it’s cold,” she said. “We’ve been here before when the hills were full.”
Mathena took her boyfriend, Dean Green, and her 10- and 8-year-old grandchildren, Wade and Annabelle Mathena, to the steep spot. As a child, she zipped down the hills of the Cherokee Park area in Louisville.
Green was also an avid sledder as a kid. Wade and Annabelle used his old sled from the 1980s to steer their way down the hill at face-reddening speeds.
Annabelle fell off at one point, face-planting into the snow. She raised a thumbs up before she lifted her head.
“Whoa, nelly,” Linda shouted. “You okay?”
“Yeah!” Annabelle yelled back.
Despite the threat of crashing, Green and Linda hopped onto the sled a few times themselves - often with a grandchild behind them.
“He and I did it last year by ourselves,” Linda said. “But it’s a lot more fun with kids.”
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Source: (Jeffersonville) News and Tribune, http://bit.ly/2mKjqv4
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Information from: News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind., http://www.newsandtribune.com
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