To the bottom how fast I would go
Just waiting for me under the tree
And out in the snow
A cowboy, a nurse or a fireman
There's so many things that you can be
You can set bigger goals, but set your soul
Yeah, set your soul free
Times, places and situations
Lead us to an early grave
When we get there we see
Just what did we save?
If your heart is a flame burning brightly
You'll have light and you'll never be cold
And soon you will know that you just grow
You're not growing old
If the wheels of your wagon are rusty
You can paint them until they are new
You can roll down a hill, but if you can't
Then I pity you
A flexible flyer or steel runner sled is a steerable wooden sled with thin metal runners.
Usage and Design
Flexible fliers are flexible both in design and usage. The rider may sit upright on the sled or lie on their stomach, allowing the possibility to descend a snowy slope feet-first or head-first. To steer the sled, the rider may either push on the wooden cross piece with their hands or feet, or pull on the rope attached to the wooden cross-piece. Shifting the cross-piece one way or the other causes the flexible rails to bend, turning the sled.
Flexible flyers work best on hard packed or icy snow. If the snow is soft and deep, the sled's runners are likely to sink in and prevent the sled from moving.
History
Flexible flyer ad from the early 1900'sSamuel Leeds Allen patented the flexible flyer in 1889[1]. Allen's company flourished by selling these speedy and yet controllable sleds at a time when others were still producing toboggans and "gooseneck" sleds.
Allen began producing sleds in his farm equipment factory to keep his workers busy even when it was not the farm season. He developed many prototypes before he created the flexible flyer. The sleds did not sell well until he began marketing them to the toy departments of department stores. In 1915, around 120,000 flexible fliers were sold, and almost 2,000 flexible flyers were sold in one day.
In 1968, Leisure Group of Los Angeles, California bought the S. L. Allen Company. Leisure Group continued to produce flexible flyers in Medina, Ohio. In 1973, a group of private investors bought Leisure Group's toy division and started manufacturing the sleds under the name "Blazon Flexible Flyer" in West Point, Mississippi. In 1993, Roadmaster purchased the rights to production and moved production to Olney, Illinois, and in 1998, production was moved to China. Flexible Flyers ceased to be produced in 1999.
