(Editor’s note: DeeDee Wood is the owner of Black Cat Curiosities, an online antiques research and sales venue.)
In the 1941 film, “Citizen Kane”, a business tycoon utters one word from his deathbed, “Rosebud.” Later we find out it refers to his childhood sled, and the story evolves from there, with connotations of innocence of youth, simple pleasures and the intricately woven story of his life.
Sleds and children flying down a snowy hill on a metal frame and wooden slats brings back memories of old, with origins in practicle transportation of goods in incliment regions. 
The sled has origins as a transport tool, especially in snowy regions of the world.
In ancient times even, in deep winter places, such as modern day Russia, sleds were used to transport goods through forests and regions harder to get to by wheels, and would slide and transport hides, wood and other necesseties in winter. As transportation issues improved, with the inventions of better carts and larger carriages, sledding became more of a fun past time, with documentation of Russian use for pleasure and Scandanavian 15th century racing documented as some of the early winter sport activies involving this small snow vehicle.
Pre-1889, children often made their own make-shift simple toboggans, with no steering on the sled. In America, in 1889, a farm equipment designer, Samuel Leeds Allen, obtained a patent for something called a Flexible Flyer, that contained a T-shaped front and steel runners, as well as steering, which replaced the often erratic toboggan.
The ability to steer a small craft down a snowy slope changed the face of the activity, and added more access to those who couldn’t make their own creation.
Mass production, coupled with aid of the Industrial Revolution, began to make the winter past time very familiar on snowy slopes in any given neighborhood.
By the 1920s, steel runners and hand-steering for faster fun down slopes, made sledding simpler and expected. During this era, toy store sections in department stores carried these sleds, and it made them extremely popular and readily available.
Brands like Paris Manufacturing, located in Maine, made hand-painted, decorative sleds for not only fun, but beauty and nostalgia. As time went on, by the 1930s, safety features such as rounded edges and runners made them better for use with less injury.
Sledding on a wooden Flyer is a nostalgic part of winter fun depicted upon postcards and set in the memories of winter yesteryear.
Modern replacements of inner tubes and plastic versions of much safer, user-friendly creations dot the landscape today when it snows, but the urge to ride the white powder to the bottom of the hill is still there, with memories of an old-fashioned wooden and metal toboggan on a snowy winter day.
