Flexible Flyer - Flash Back Friday
The Olympics are a reason for celebration in my house. Nine times out of ten in our household there is some kind of sports event on the TV , when the Olympics come around, we usually have them tuned in. With all the sliding, skating, skiing, and racing this week, I thought that Flexible Flyer Sleds would be a great Flash Back Friday Toy. Here's a little history from an article by D. B. Ryan.
"The Flexible Flyer Sled, the iconic toy of films such as "A Christmas Story," was the brainchild of a Pennsylvania Quaker farm implements manufacturer named Samuel Leeds Allen. Allen worked with his father, John C. Allen, from a crafts barn on "Ivystone," his working farm. The inspiration for the sled came from his love of sledding and his experiences at Westtown Boarding School and Friends' Select School in the late 1850s. Sledding, or "coasting," was a popular winter pastime during the 1800s. S.L. Allen's children served as testers for each new sled design.
S.L. Allen had a practical reason to design sleds, in that he wanted to provide work for his employees at the manufacturing facility. Farm equipment was a seasonal business: it sold well when farmers were not actively involved in working their farms, during the winter months. The summer and fall months left Allen workers waiting for new projects. He did not want his employees to leave for occupations with a full-year employment."
An original Flexible Flyer is even on display at the Smithsonian Institution of American History.
These sleds were made in Medina, OH from 1969 to 1973.
This is a 1969 photo from the Ohio Historical Society where workers pose with some of the sleds made at the plant. Here is a great article from The Gazette from Medina County, OH on the sledding plant's history
You can still get a Flexible Flyer sled today- wooden or a more modern plastic model. You can check out the full selection here.
Have a great weekend- I am off to Vancouver to catch a little bit of the Olympic spirit! I'll report back on Monday.
--Laura M.
SorrowPity on February 20, 2010 at 12:52 PM
Prior to the Medina, Ohio period, the sleds were made in Philadelphia at the S.L. Allen Company factory at 5th and Glenwood. The giant factory is still there. Using Bing Street View you can read "Flexible Flyer" and the name S.L. Allen near the roof line.
Robbins Mitchell on February 20, 2010 at 01:35 PM
When I was a kid back in the late 50's and early 60's and we could always count on enough snow every year to be out of school for a week,my fellow sledders would find the best hills which sometimes included driveways and the pavement in our circle and we would all lie belly flop on our sleds and stick our feet into the spaces formed by the structural steel at the front of the sled behind us and make a 'train' of 6 or 7 sleds going down those hills....naturally the 'train' sometimes acted like a game of 'crack the whip' on roller skates,and the last kid in the 'train' usually got whipped side to side and wiped out...the bravest of us would stand on the sled and steer it by holding on to the tow rope tied to both ends of the front tiller....I was a lot braver in those days
Milo on February 20, 2010 at 01:41 PM
Growing up in San Francisco back in the early 50's, my friends and I all had flexible Flyers. Only, the models we used came with wheels. I used up two or three until I got too old for my "Flexy" and graduated to a bicycle. Wore out lots of shoes with that little sled. (You can look it up).
Bruce on February 21, 2010 at 02:44 PM
Robbins Mitchell and I must be contemporaries - I have the exact same memories. We also - in those halcyon days before Big brother took all the fun out of life and traffic allowed - would make a long train towed behind a friends car, snaking through the neighborhood. Flexy Flyers were the BOMB back in the day.
But gack ... $133 bucks for the small 4 foot job now? I remember collecting bottles for 2 cents each to save up the $12 bucks the 2 place sled cost back then!
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