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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Early-Bird Grown-Ups Savor Powder On Sled Hill

In a few hours, the place would be swarming with sledders.

But a few minutes after 8 o’clock on Sunday morning, the hill at Manito Park was quiet and still.

You know the place. It’s the sledding run drivers see from Grand Boulevard when heading south.

A light overnight snowfall had prepared the slope for a new day’s use. And now it was snowing again, a grainy downfall more like specks than flakes.

Down below the hill, a guy walking two exhilarated huskies pulled back on their straining leashes like someone in a boat trying to land a leaping marlin.

But the sledding run remained unmarked.

Finally, at about 8:15, a red Ford Ranger truck pulled in and parked. A woman emerged, followed by a man. Both wore knit caps.

They pulled two black inner tubes from the back, tossed them onto the snow and started toe-punching them in the direction of the sledding hill.

The inner tubes slid along as if on a greased pan.

The first to use the hill Sunday wouldn’t be kids. It would be Wallace and Sheila Clark-Keith, a couple of bona fide grown-ups.

Approaching from the side, they climbed to the top of the hill and settled down onto the inner tubes.

They moved slowly at first. But then they picked up speed and swooshed 50 or 60 yards down the snow-slicked incline.

“This is cool,” Sheila called out as the tubes drew fat lines on the hill.

When they got back up to the top, Wallace said he knew some would dismiss what they were doing as kid stuff. But he doesn’t consider that especially damning. He’s made a point of trying to maintain a link to the carefree joy of childhood.

“I call it never forgetting how to walk with one foot off the curb,” he said.

If you’ve ever shot down that hill atop an inner tube, you might know precisely what he means. It is all but impossible to resist breaking into a smile that’s so huge it doesn’t exactly qualify as dignified and restrained. (Just watch where you sit relative to the valve stem.)

A little after 8:30, a pack of small kids pulling various sleds and dishes began heading up the hill.

The Clark-Keiths were about to have company. They didn’t mind.

“Well, dear,” Wallace said to Sheila.

And once again, they were flying down the hill.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that looks at Inland Northwest gatherings.

Being There is a weekly feature that looks at Inland Northwest gatherings.