The streets are pretty much snow-compacted right now. When we were in our early teens we used to "hook bumpers". This required the snow-compacted streets, slippery shoes (leather-soled penny-loafers at that time), a distracted driver and a teenage sense of safety. When a car pulled up to a stop sign a couple of us would discreetly squat behind the car in a ski-jump position, hook our hands under the bumper and wait for the free tow. It's a real blast at 20+ mph. I don't recall anyone getting severely injured. How can that be possible? Nobody ever decided to back up?
We used to do it with the metal disks and rope. we got beat up but didn't care. Can we do it again.
ReplyDeleteIn my grandfather's eyes I was a replacement for my Uncle Bob, who died a couple of weeks before I was born. He died of a head injury incurred earlier skiing behind a car trying to set a local speed record. I'm 65. I think I'm going to take a pass on this one. I'll watch you do it though.
ReplyDeleteNot very much snow in southern New Mexico so we towed a tire behind my CJ-5 around a motorcycle track. Dumb fun!
ReplyDeleteWe called it "skeeching" in Wisconsin in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteMy dad had stories and photos of him and his cronies skiing on a tow rope. My mother knew about the Uncle Bob incident and prevented the Old Man from ever passing the skill down.
ReplyDeleteHe was a winter speed freak. His prized possession was the tobaggan with the steel runners that he used as a kid on the iced tobaggan run in Columbia Park off Central and the St. Anthony Parkway [Nordeast reference for the week] as a kid. I loved that sled, especially on thawed and refrozen south facing slopes. Great speed and a sense of impending doom.
A little further south in Illinois in the 80's we called it skitching. But we used a buddy with his own car. So we also had a teenage driver who knew what was happening behind him. Crazy! Back then cars had substantial bumpers that you could really get a good grip on. Today's cars would be hard to hold onto.
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