SLIDING ON THE BIG HILL
by John B. Walsh

Winter in Merasheen was always an active time for such sports as hopping the ice pans, ‘toe-e-ing", skating, and the most exciting of all, sliding down the Big Hill.

The Big Hill run was not only conveniently located, but it held all the ‘excitement of a roller -coaster ride, with fast runs, ice, deep bumps and bounces, and Mr. Martin Connors’ picket fence to stop you at the end.

Well, after school this evening my cousin, Joe Hann, took his newly built slide to the side of the Big Hill above the puncheon. It had glittered and frozen the night before and the hill was like a sheet of glass. The new sled had to be tested to the max and Joe was after all "the king of the hill“.

Well then sir, Joe went way up, and how he manoeuvred around the exposed boulders coming down I do not know, but down he came - going way too fast! When he reached the bottom, the situation improved only slightly, since the marsh was also solid ice. Joe and the sled rattled across with the speed and noise of a train. Now out of control, the sled headed for the school outhouse (in the area where the Co-op store was in later years) and before it hit, Joe braced himself for the unavoidable collision. The momentum caused Joe to stand straight up at the sudden stop and his body, leading with his nose, came smack into that outhouse wall.

Dazed a little, bloody nose and all, Joe rolled over and said, ‘I'm going up again boy!“

Someday I would like to climb that Big Hill once more, if I am not too old, go way in over the top, and let her run all the way down. Mr. Martin would not mind anymore for his broken picket fence is now long gone.