“During the winter, sledding was clearly the activity the boys enjoyed most. The favorite places for sledding were Shell Road and Chapel Hill, and by popular acclaim, Flexible Flyers’ Racer-Racer model was by far the best of sleds. It was longer, lower, and racier than any other. Sleds were in short supply —sledless boarders were driven to do their sledding on trays borrowed from the dining hall.”
“When there was really good snow, boys could race down Chapel Hill, follow a slight fold in the meadow, and get almost down to McDonogh Road. They thought it was great fun to make a jump out of three sleds stacked on each other with snow packed over and around them. They would race down the hill, launch off the jump, and be airborne for 5-10 yards. Do it by yourself and have fun; do it with another fellow, go further and share the thrill; be the bottom man of a three-man team, and have the breath knocked out of you and feel as though you’ve broken a couple of ribs.”
“After buses and cars melted the snow on Shell Road and night temperatures froze it solid, boys could start with a running belly-flop near the top of the hill, go down to McDonogh Road, and, if they could make the corner, go on down to Farm Road.”
“In the early days after a snow, the county didn’t plow part of McDonogh Road not far from Reisterstown Road. It fell to the school to clear it if they wanted to get in and out. The solution was to send a truckload of boys with shovels and 10-gallon cans of hot cocoa out to do the job. It was sort of fun; at least it was better than going to class. A boy from Florida, who had never seen snow, decided it would be fun to dive into the drifted snow—he did and went through to the asphalt, got a black eye, but luckily nothing worse.”
