Sledding Police Debut In Raynham, MA
By Wyatt Earp | January 15, 2011
Just when you thought the state of Massachusetts couldn’t get any more retarded, the Raynham school committee rears its idiotic head. The libtard school officials there have banned sledding on the hill behind the school; a hill universally agreed as the best in the area.
Why? It’s for the children . . .
Raynham school officials are trying to stop daredevils from sledding down a dangerous hill. The trails on the hill behind Raynham Middle School lead right to a parking lot at the bottom. “It proceeds directly into an area where there are vehicles,” said school committee member Gordon Luciano.
“We’ve had incidents where sleds are crashing into vehicles…numerous accidents, ambulance calls.”
The Raynham Police Chief says his officers are patrolling the area, but can’t be there all the time.
The police? Really?? When Randal and I were kids, we spent our time on “Suicide Hill.” It was a ridiculously steep sledding hill with a creek at the bottom. You jumped on your sled, reached speeds of Mach 2, and made your choice: bail out or risk going into the creek. Was it dangerous? Damned straight! Was it fun? Hell yeah! And guess what? We knew whose fault it was if we got hurt: our own.
Instead of putting up a “No Trespassing” sign, put up a “Sled At Your Own Risk” sign. Kids should be able to make their own mistakes.
Oh, and the chances of seeing me patrol that hill if I worked in Raynham? Zero.
Topics: Snarkasm | 27 Comments »
January 15th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
We used to have a hill that iced up and had just enough slant to not be 90 degrees. We sat on each others laps to go down the hill. It was awesome! And like you…there was a water feature at the bottom waiting for us…never got us, though.
January 15th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
I’d really love if police officers would start telling their superiors that they’re too busy to enforce busybody rules like this. This is the kind of thing that makes kids decide that they shouldn’t care about the law, because people make such stupid ones.
January 15th, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Would this qualify as being “Wussys” by our soon to be “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass MEDIA WHORE ” fast eddie rendell? eddie your libitard progressive friends are all *USSYS
January 15th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
And while the police are checking on sledding children, people who smoke a cigarette, safety belts, etc., etc. real criminals are out doing what they do best when not bogged down by law enforcement, i.e. committing real crimes.
When we were teens, we would stand on the corner and wait for a car to stop at the light. Then we would get behind the car with a sled if we had one or just our boots on, hold on to the bumper and awaaay we would go. We hung on for a minute or two and then let go. We all survived that stupidity. Back then of course, the police were responsible for catching real criminals and you know what we did not have hardly any crime.
January 15th, 2011 at 9:08 pm
We are creating a nation of damn pansies.
January 15th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Remember when we used to sled down Morrell Ave.’s sidewalk and go Bowling for…
January 15th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
RT – Suicide Hill never got me, but I did break a few Radio Flyer wood and metal sleds, though.
PhillipC – Any officer in Raynham that enforces this is a fool.
Crusty – Definitely wussies.
Ralph – Yeah, Randal used to hop on the back of the UPS truck before one of our neighbors ratted him out.
GroovyVic – No doubt about it.
Randal – I do, indeed. Good times!
January 15th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Wyatt, there’s a hill like your “Suicide Hill” that Little Brother and I spent many a snow day racing down, only without the water hazard.
The local kids made up for that shortcoming by building ramps at the bottom. I don’t mean dinky little maybe-get-a-few-inches-of-air-if-you’re-lucky ramps, I’m talking holy-cow-that-guy-almost-achieved-orbit! ramps.
Were there wipe-outs? Well duh! Were there injuries? You bet. Did we have more fun than should be humanly possible. Helz yeah!
Of course, it had to be on township-owned land, and some soccer mom had to threaten a lawsuit after her darling little angle got a boo-boo there one year, so sledding is banned there too. And people wonder why kids these days spend all their time in front of the xBox…
January 15th, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Physics is a better teacher to lil ole Billy and Sally than mom and pop.
January 16th, 2011 at 12:03 am
Ebbetts Field had a sign in the outfield for a tailor and if a batter hit the sign, he won a free suit.
That was when ballplayers had to get jobs in the offseason.
Good thing they don’t have to do that anymore, cause there ain’t no jobs.
So, maybe an attorney can put a sign on the fence saying…
“Hit this sign and we’ll sue the owner of the fence”.
January 16th, 2011 at 12:43 am
I think everyone had a “suicide hill.” Ours was the back end of the local golf course: steep, long, wide and just windy enough to be fun. And the stop sign at the end: yup, a little creek you avoided unless you wanted to get soaked and face the wrath of,…your parents!!
January 16th, 2011 at 12:47 am
Oh teh memories . . . sliding down a steep, ice-covered street that cars were also negotiating (with chains) on a Flexible Flier . . . my left arm awkwardly stuck out to my side, in a cast from my hand to above my elbow . . .
January 16th, 2011 at 2:03 am
The board should be gelded. Period. If girls, a hysterectomy is in order. Shit like that should never procreate.
January 16th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Raptor – Our local high school – Lower Moreland – has an awesome hill. Last week, Kyle went down the hill on his snowboard, hit the ramp, and went airborne before wiping out. He thought it was the greatest thing ever.
Jon – So are bumps and bruises.
JT – And give you a free steak!
BA – That’s where ours was – golf course. Good times.
Doc – The good old days. They ain’t coming back, I’m afraid.
OPRO1 – They are perpetuating teh stoopid.
January 16th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
The old Municipal Stadium was built on a hill. Way back before anything else was down there except a drive-in(!), it was a great hill for sledding in winter, or cannonballing down on bikes when the weather was good. And not today’s 8-pound racing bikes, either. These were single-speed, coaster-brake Schwinns that weighed as much as we did.
Good to know that the tradition is still alive.
Stay safe
January 16th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
A teacher in England got in trouble for allowing teen-agers to sled.
“He failed to carry out appropriate risk assessments and failed to provide a written risk assessment. He didn’t ensure pupils were wearing protective headgear and clothing.”
January 16th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Lergnom – Kids think they’re gonna live forever. They’ll just try and scope out another hill.
Kim – Oh, for God’s sake!
January 16th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
I recall Rush telling about a place(I forget where) banned sledding because you could get your fingers cut off under the sled runners.I recall sledding down a hill across a parking lot trying to dodge parked cars.
January 16th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
I remember one boozy evening in Westminster MD about 30 years ago, visiting my sister. It was on the campus of Western Maryland College. We “borrowed” some trays from the cafeteria and went out “traying” on this hill on the campus; what it lacked in steepness it made up for in sheer distance, so you could pick up some major speed. At the end of the run was a drainage ditch and beyond that a road. No-one got killed or injured that evening, but dayum, was it fun!
January 17th, 2011 at 11:11 am
We used to sled at a school that had a field about 500 ft long with a parking lot at the bottom. Everyone knew to park in the lot at the top not the bottom. The more adventurous would go a little further down the hill to a city park. The hill in the park was only 30 or so ft long with a 10 foot drop. At the bottom was a 5 ft high retaining wall, 30 more ft of flat ground and a wrought iron fence. A good run meant staying on your tube (no one ever tried this on a sled to my knowledge) when you hit the ground and bailing just before you hit the fence.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Rick – My mother-in-law just gave us an old sled with the steel runners. The kids can’t wait to try it out.
Clutch – “Traying.” That sounds awesome.
Ccs – Yeah, because if you didn’t bail, your wooden sled would be firewood. Good times. Now, thanks to Raynham, the kids there will never have these terrific memories.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:39 am
I’m protective of my wooden sled, great-grandpa’s flexible flyer racer. 5 ft long cupped runners circa Mid 19teens. We call it the death sled, it gets going scary fast.
In the park we always used truck tire intertubes, the idea was to land and not bounce off then bail at the last second and see how close you could come to the fence.
January 17th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Re: Traying
In college, a bunch of us went to Steamboat for a week. The place where we were staying was a short walk from the slopes, and about a third of the way up. One evening we, um, “liberated” a few trays from the food court at the bottom of the slope. You might not think you could break the sound barrier on a cafeteria tray, but you’d think wrong. It was more fun than the actual skiing!
January 17th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Wyatt:
We used to sled the hills behind Lincoln High back in the early 70s…best damn hill around, too.
My buddy and I found a really steep hill past the fence line going into Pennypack.
Now THAT was treacherous…lots of trees to dodge…bottom of the hill took you to a bridge across the creek…and we LOVED every minute of it!
THAT was a childhood!
Stay safe.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Ccs – Prefect for the possibility of serious (and for the unharmed, funny) injuries.
CIC – And there’s no possibility of steering. Adds the element of danger.
Bob G – I am very familiar with that spot. It’s extra fun when you have to steer through obstacles.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
The Coulees of NC Montana and Southern Alberta were good places! And when I lived in Helena MT, we had the mountains right there!
Sled, Tobaggon, Inner Tube and my baby sister in a plastic laundry basket!
January 17th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
ORPO1 – My daughter likes to get into the laundry basket and have my oldest drag her around the basement.