Six good friends from high school days piled into Jeff's car with a toboggan strapped on top. Headed south for Swallow Cliff for a day of winter fun. It was icy cold that day but we didn't care. We had hot chocolate and vodka to keep us warm. Feeling daring, we decided to skip the wooden slides and go down the back side of the cliff. We climbed the stairs and had to stop huffing and puffing halfway up. We all packed extra college snacking pounds. At the top, we secretly stole behind the wooden chutes to the backside of the cliff. I pointed to a path I thought would be an unfettered run. Excited and cold, we took giant swigs of our special hot chocolate drink. Ready to go, we lined up the toboggan and climbed aboard, locking our legs under each other's arms.

"Everyone ready?" I called. "Yeah, let's go!" Jim yelled. We leaned forward and tipped the big sled. Down we went bouncing, picking up speed, until Jack, in front, yelled, "Look out!" Smack in our path loomed an enormous pine tree. We leaned to the left and tried to swerve, but no luck. We hit the trunk head-on. Lucky for us, that hot chocolate drink apparently made us flexible. We rolled in the snow and laughed and laughed and now fifty years later over beers, Jim, Jack and I, at our favorite tavern, recall our near fiasco on that cold winter day.