Having come to Chattanooga “temporarily,” I experience it through a visitor’s eyes. Every weekend feels like a mini-vacation as I take advantage of what is unique about the area.
Often, I only have to look out the window or walk down the block to find something unique. For example, one of the first things I discovered after we moved here is that Chattanoogans are quite creative when it comes to having fun.
I grew up in Ohio where we had enough snow to go sledding every winter. I grew up feeling sorry for people who lived in places where they didn’t get snow and didn’t get to sled. I assumed Chattanooga was one of those places. But what I’ve discovered is that, in Chattanooga, no one actually needs snow.
Here, grass sledding is all the rage. The sled of choice is a simple piece of cardboard. Perhaps there are high-performance grass sleds available – teflon coated cardboard, or maybe graphite would be slipperier – but I haven’t seen any so far.
What I have seen is people having a ball sliding down grassy slopes on 95+ degree days without spending a penny. To boot, grass sleds are 100 perecnt recyclable. Now that’s what I call inventive.
Almost every sunny day, I see children with their parents sliding down the grassy slope. In August, they would start gathering in the afternoon, making the most of the last days before school started. Now, the sledding hill stands like a lonely memorial to summer during the week, but every Saturday and Sunday, it is once again littered with cardboard--the insistent remnants of summer.
On my frequent walks through the park, I pass the hill full of sledding families and occasionally see a child getting more speed than she or he bargained for. Usually, this ends with a rolling spill at the end of the hill. Yet I’ve never seen anyone get hurt sledding the hill. The parents all look happy to have something safe and fun to enjoy with their children. After all, what is childhood without a few grass stains?