The sled that Philadelphia built

We've been reading stories about the road-salt shortage. But a sled shortage? That's news to me.

On Reddit's Philadelphia page Wednesday, beansjawns wrote:

"My girlfriend grew up in the south and has never really had a chance to play in the snow. She's been dying to get a sled and finally decided today was the day, anticipating a nice covering and snow day on Wed/Thurs. Thing is, everyone is out of sleds. We tried all over South Philly - Walmart, Target, Five Below, Toys 'R Us, etc. Finally tracked a few down at Modell's on Chestnut. Just in case anyone else here is looking ..."

This brought back a couple of memories. First is that one day in the early '90s, Clark DeLeon was off and I was given a shot at writing his "The Scene" column about life in and around Philadelphia. I wrote about my old Flexible Flyer, and when doing some digging, learned that its history was local.

Samuel Leeds Allen patented the sled in 1889 in Cinnaminson. (New Jersey state senator and former TV anchor Diane Allen married the creator's grandson, Sam the 3d.) The S.L. Allen company started making these sturdy snow runners in the offseason, when it wasn't producing farm equipment.

The sleds didn't fly off the floor until Allen began marketing them to department stores, and in 1915, it sold around 120,000. The Philadelphia warehouse long stood on Fifth Street near Glenwood Avenue. Then, in 1968. Flexible Flyer was sold to an L.A. firm. Today, most are made in China.

"The Cadillac of Sleds," said one boy of winter I talked to. That would be my dad, Phil Rubin, age 88, who grew up in his father's hardware store in the Dorchester section of Boston and learned to sled in Mattapan.

"They had a couple sizes of Flexible Flyers, and you could fit a few people on them. I'd go down the hill on my belly and then everyone would go alongside you and try to twist the back of the sled so you couldn't go down the hill. That was about the worst thing we ever did."

The beauty of the Flexible Flyer, he recalled, was the way the back runners curved up to the wood slats, so you couldn't get impaled. The cheaper sled - the Speedway - didn't have that feature. "Also, the Flexible Flyer steered a lot better. You could hold onto the two arms and twist it almost 90 degrees either way," Dad recalled.

"The Flexible Flyer was faster and heavier, and if you were on one, it was harder for anyone to turn you around."

He remembers buying a dozen or so before each winter for the store. They wouldn't cost more than $15, he recalled, but that might have been a bit ago. These days, looks like they start at $79.99. If you know of a place in Philadelphia that's got some sleds in stock, leave a comment online - even at those prices.