The Really Big Slide

The pung shown in this old postcard (circa 1920, Rockport, Massachusetts) is probably similar to the one featured in Harry Dodge's account below.  As far as we know, no photo of his actual pung remains. ​

Gene Sweetser's recent comments on the Worcester Connects Community Facebook page about the slide he and friends used to take on a bobsled  from way up Minister Brook almost ending in the Village made me think of the incredible ride of Harry Dodge in the early 1920's from their family home at the top of Gould Hill. Here is his description of the long and dangerous ride as told to his grandson, Chris:

"It was a nice March afternoon. My father had just gone to work. He had said earlier that he wanted to get rid of that ol' pung (a one horse sleigh) that was sitting in the back of our home. My brother and I decided to take the pung for a small ride. We got dressed and dragged the pung to the top of the nearby field and took off the shafts (the part of the sleigh that connects the sleigh to the horse). We started to slide down the hill.

"If we had planned our trip correctly we would cross the property of many of our neighbors. We wanted to end up in the low lands by the North Branch of the Winooski River. We had gone about one-half mile when we came upon a stone wall fence. The wall was covered with a few feet of snow. This was between the road we wanted to cross and us. Needless to say, we could not stop the sleigh so we had no choice but to jump the stone wall. I told my brother to duck his head and I did the same.

"We crossed the wall and took off into the air like a bird. We touched down with a crash and kept going. We heard a ping noise and my brother asked me, 'What's that?'

"I replied, 'That was the top strand of Richardson's barb-wire fence.'

 "We kept going and heard the noise again and knew that we had made it to Ladd's fence.

​"By this time we were on level ground and heading for another stone fence. Again we hit and landed ten feet up in a tree. The seat went over our heads and into another tree. We landed with the sleigh on the ground. That same minute the seat landed in front of us on the ground and split into many pieces. Luckily, we were not hurt. We got out of the mess and I said to my brother, 'Well, no problem in getting rid of that ol' pung.' We went home and stoked the fire."