I'll let you go first Tug!

This weekend we got some snow here in East, TN. We normally don't get any until Jan, Feb, or March, so it was kind of a surprise. I spent some time outside playing in the snow with my kids. It brought back a ton of childhood memories from when I used to play in the snow, especially with my cousin Danny. Let me tell you about one of those times...

It was probably around 1978, when I was 12-years old. We used to have some pretty big snows back then. This time in particular we had well over a foot of the stuff lying on the ground. Lucky for us kids we grew up in hilly East, TN. My papaw owned 11 or 12 acres of farm land and there was a huge hill on one side of it. We just called it "the hill." I spent many hours hiking up and down that hill from our property to the large garden that was located at the top of the hill. I also used to love to sit on a big rock that was about 3/4 of the way to the top and look out at the beautiful landscape. So, getting back to the story... like I said, we got a pretty big snow. Well, we always used to sled down the hill whenever we had the chance. Usually we would use some old car inner tubes. This time Danny came up with a brilliant idea. "You know Tug, the best sled in the world is an old Volkswagen car hood," he said. "Really?" I asked. "Sure," said Danny. So, we set about finding us a VW car hood. There just happened to be an old junked VW in the woods so we removed the hood and pulled it to the top of the hill. This is where things get interesting...

"I'll let you go first Tug!" Danny said. That sounded like a fine plan to me and I was appreciative that my older cousin was thinking of me and giving me first turns. Danny held the sled and I climbed onto it, settling down on the backside. We had tied a rope on the front of it so we could pull it around and I took the rope in my hands, sorta like holding the reigns on a horse. "Okay Tug, I'll give you a big shove." Danny got behind me and pushed me as hard as he could. That VW hood took off on the snow like a greased pig. I was sailing down the hill at top speed. If you remember, I said that my papaw owned "farm land." Well, part of having a farm is having cows. Part of having cows is having barbed wire fences. So, naturally, there were several fences on papaw's land. I reckon being 12-years old, I didn't think much further than the next 2 steps I would take. That barbed wire fence at the bottom of the hill never crossed my mind until about half way down when I saw it rushing forward to meet me. "Oh no!" I screamed. There was no slowing that hood down. It was inevitable that I was going to hit that barbed wire fence at full speed. I never even thought about jumping off, I was too terrified. I know it could have only been seconds that I was sledding down that hill but in that tiny time span I must have imagined a million different things, mostly how I was probably gonna die a bloody and painful death.

I don't know if you've ever rammed a barbed wire fence at 60 mph while sitting on a Volkswagen hood or not, but let me tell you, it's an experience you'll never forget. The tip of the hood sat just high enough to go over the bottom strand of wire. The hood managed to slide completely through the fence raking me off the back of it and depositing my body in the middle of the fence. As I hung there sideways with a hundred, tiny, sharp barbs sticking in my skin, my cousin Danny was laughing and running down the hill towards me. When he finally reached me and asked me if I was okay, all I could think was, "now I know why he wanted me to go first!"

Those were the days my friend. I wouldn't trade those fun times for anything in the world.