Snowy Pleasure Seekers Sometimes Throw Caution to the Wind
My dad’s winter hospitality turned into a lawsuit.
Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his den for the annual Groundhog Day appearance and saw his shadow that is a certain sign that there will be six more weeks of bad weather. The skiers, snowboarders, and even the avid sledders could not be happier. Snow pack and freshly falling snow brings jubilation to both children and adults.
Each year our family hoped for a snowy Christmas. As our niece and nephews were growing up, they anxiously anticipated their annual trek from Alabama to their father’s roots in central Indiana. Snow is such a rarity in Alabama that they could hardly contain their excitement to tromp around in the wet mess, build snowmen, and go sledding. There are a couple of wonderful hills in Marion to slide down, but as the nephews grew older and a little braver their dad would tie one end of a rope to their sled and the other end to the back bumper of his car. One had to question the sanity of such a move, but the boys had a blast, survived the thrill and they are both happy fathers themselves today.
Unfortunately, about 40 years ago, this type of winter fun took a tragic turn, which resulted in a serious injury to a sledder and a lawsuit filed against my dad.
My dad had always been more than eager to come to my rescue. He was a jack-of-all-trades, but master of few. Still if anything needed repair, he would give it the old college try. Dad was unconventional in his approach, and without the help of YouTube, felt that duct tape, wire, and WD40 could solve most any issue that came up around the house.
After he retired as a paint and body repair person he had several maintenance type jobs, but that winter he and my mom lived at Camp Cullom. They lived in a mobile home there and dad was the camp’s caretaker. He mowed all of the grounds during mowing season and cleaned the camp’s lodge where groups met for meetings and outings.
The camp had a popular hill for sledding in the winter. Unfortunately, people arriving had to drive across the base of the hill to the parking area at the top of the hill by the lodge. To assist those sledders dad positioned himself at the bottom of the hill and would raise his walking stick when the driveway was free of cars and it was safe to slide down the slope.
Sadly, one day a slider did not notice that dad had not raised his stick and she started down the hill. Just as the girl reached the bottom, she slid right into the side of a car. An ambulance took the victim to the hospital and the sledding came to a grinding halt.
As a result of the accident, the victim’s family sued the Clinton County Youth Foundation, which owned and operated the camp. Officials from the CCYF asked Dad to report to their attorney’s office in Indianapolis.
Finally, I saw this as an opportunity to help dad as he had helped me so many times before. Dad had only been to Indianapolis a few times. As we approached the large building on the Meridian Circle, I could sense dad’s anxiety level rising. We went up to the tenth floor and I sat by dad’s side at a large conference table in the attorney’s plush office suite. For once my college degrees allowed me to understand the deposition process and enabled me to help dad field some of the attorney’s questions.
Fortunately, the issue never went to court, but shortly after that mom and dad left Camp Cullom. I still don’t know if the camp officials fired dad or if he left on his own accord. My best guess is that he left because he felt responsible for a little girl getting hurt on his watch. He loved children of all ages!
We can learn several lessons these types of sledding experiences.
1. Even in snowy weather, we must use common sense. Tying a rope to a sled and pulling kids behind a car down the street has risks so be very cautious!
2. Just because a hill looks like the perfect hill to slide down watch out for hazards like bushes, trees, or automobiles before making a final push down the hill.
3. Even though you may just be trying to help do not create a liability situation for yourself where one does not exist. In the past sleds had raced down the hill at Camp Cullom at their own risk, but because dad assumed the position of giving the all clear he became legally responsible for accident on the hill.
Being pulled on a sled behind a car or sliding down a hill might exciting, but just building a snowman or having a snowball fight may be a much safer option. To paraphrase a comment often used by the Indiana State Police, “The roads and slopes are snow-covered, slick, and hazardous! Exercise extreme caution!”
