Sitting here by the fire ; watching the little flames lick and wreck havoc on
the dry bark of the summers wood . spreading a conflagration from within that
will soon consume the oak log in hisses and firefights  of  flickered light
that dance on the heart pine walls of our Creole cottage
Its a cool  night  after a wet day through the forrest and  bayous; low 40's
is my guess
 Peanut and Ma ma are asleep ; the tree is up ; and all are  waiting for
Santa ..
We don't get snow here much ; and as my bones don't miss it Im all the more
better for it .  I do have an old Flyer sled ( thats just about driftwood
(circa 50's ) mounted out  on the work shed wall  . In case ...In Case of Snow ....
break glass.
Looking at it reminds me of a ride of a lifetime a long time ago ...

One Christmas day  eve
up near a cabin in Webster NH
a group of us boys and girls took a ride of a lifetime
the snow you see had risen over the farmers stone fences
and  so wellpacked  we could fly over them  in lift offs of 10 ft or  more at
certain spots

So  under a clear bright moon and crystal cold temperatures  that pinch the
nose
we set off   the six of us , on a toboggan ride of hoots and giggles  that
careened  down hill at perilious speeds .

On and On the toboggan drove downhill  swishing snow and  loosing a tail
rider here and there over every jump until the last jump appeared unchartered and
craggy with a small yet strong 3" sapling right in landing path.

To abandon the ride right before the stone wall was deadly;
the 4 of us that were still left  were now  achieving speeds up to 50 miles
an hour.

However to try and chance missing the sapling was suicide, it was dead on
,and
flexable  as it was ;  it was still a  tree .

A instinctive group  decision was made mid air somewhere between lift off and
the meeting of the sapling  to abandon ship.

It was one of those rare moments in human  group dynamics when everyone gets
the same idea all at  once.
No debates; no discussion  ...you get it or you  are going to .get
it...sooner or later

Well like human kind everywhere  everyone got it  but one intrepid soul.
.
I cannot remember the lead fellows name ; a gregarious youth  with a quick
smile and a shock of sandy hair that fell over a boyish  face .and a smirk that
said  said "what the hell".
After making lift off over the last wall we bailed and  plummeted to earth
from the  toboggan like a  bundle  of   tossed woolens  from a train landing
unceremoniously  in heaps on the frosty hillside..
It was there, somewhere in mid air before landing  that    we heard a
terrible  crack followed by  the  splintering of wood  only to see our friend , a
shapeless form  cry and  disappear  head over heels into  the  frigid night.

We pulled ourselves out of our landing zones and staggered  over the drifted
 snow  to search him out .

All was quiet when we reached him ; with nervous excitement we pulled him out
by his boots and  fortunately for all of us  found  he was very alive  but
very dazed and skinned from chin to scalp in a nasty tiretrack of blood..

He was just going into pain and so we packed it in snow. and led him  back to
the cabin.over a series of shortcuts until we reached a road that was
somewhat plowed.
He survived but was in alot of pain over the next few days .

Our path back  however  took us past the toboggan;
and there she was about 6ft high in the air split perfectly in half down the
middle until coming to a sudden stop  about midway tru the seating.
 We tried to retrieve it but it wouldn't budge the tree held her fast .

Years later in the 80's I had passed the spot on a summer outing; and there
about 10 or 12 ft off the ground hung the toboggan with the tree growing
perfectly round and through the middle of  it like some bizarre piece of  sculpture
recounting  the tale of a Christmas ride of long ago.

I like to think its still there ; like some of the tombstones I work on where
the stone is wrapped literately around by the tree trunnk fusing time and
nature to a paticular moment; before swallowing it whole.

Merry Christmas pin heads  Pyrate

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