The new snow last week got us out on skis again just as we had thought that the cross country ski season was over. At the very same time, going through old family albums, I came across some early days of skiing in Norwich and the Ford Sayre ski carnivals.

Norwich was one of the communities that quickly got on board when Penny Sayre started the Ford K. Sayre Memorial Ski Program. There is a wonderful video on the Ford Sayre website which shows the history of that program: click here . I just watched it recently — it brought back many memories of my early days in skiing.

My parents were among the organizers of the Norwich Ford Sayre Program in the early 1940’s. I know Dad was on the council and may have been part of the original council which included Hanover and Norwich. When I was sorting through his papers, there were folders with council minutes and notes he had written.

Mother and Dad were not new to skiing – many photos show them practicing telemark turns in the years right after they were married in 1930. They got my brother Peter and me on skis by the time we were 3 years old – the photographs here show Peter at about age 4 and me about 3

 

(the quality of the photos is pretty poor because they are scanned from negatives and made into positives, a trick I have just barely learned).

 

 

 

By the time Peter was in school (at the Norwich Public School) in 1943, the Ford Sayre program was in full swing. There were skis and boots and poles for every child who wanted to learn to ski – at no charge. Once a week after school, we walked or strode on skis to the Norwich Flats. This was a long narrow hill between where “The Gateway to Norwich” condominiums are now and McKenna Road. In the 1960’s, this hill was obliterated by the construction of I-91 – but there was a fair slope from the road down to Blood Brook. Once we got to the hill, we packed it down, stepping sideways down and up the side of the hill until there was a packed surface on which to ski. Then our volunteer ski instructors, mostly parents who had taken their lessons the week before, set out our lessons. We skied down and herringboned or side stepped back up to take another run down the hill. We practiced snow plowing, turning,

and learned the intermediate turn called a stem Christie, and finally learned parallel turns.

As we got better and progressed up through the intermediate and advanced classes, we skied at Alto (a small ski hill in Norwich on Cemetery Hill with a rope tow) and Oak Hill (a larger ski hill in Hanover which had a J-bar lift at that time).

We called our skiing “alpine” or “downhill” and didn’t consider that we were also skiing cross country. Our heels were not attached to our skis, so we could walk or stride naturally on flat or slight inclines. As we grew up and the ski industry advanced, our bindings changed and our heels were held onto our skis. Then it was pretty natural at the end of a run or race to skate to the finish.

Along with the downhill skiing, we learned how to jump. We built small snow jumps at first and then volunteer adults built bigger and bigger jumps. There was a competitive jump on Meadowbrook Road in Norwich on Paul and Sylvia Sample’s property, at first a snow jump and later a jump fabricated from wood and covered with snow in the winter. Larger jumps were built on Oak Hill in Hanover and Storrs Hill in Lebanon, where the Lebanon Outing Club had a ski program for children similar to the Ford Sayre Program. Girls and boys jumped together. I gave it up after a carnival in Lebanon when I was probably 8 or 9 years, old.

But my brother Peter jumped for many years later including jumping off the Dartmouth College ski jump which was situated on the Golf Course off Route 10 just north of the village of Hanover.

 

Every year we had a ski carnival, with slalom and downhill races and jumping competitions. We raced against each other in age groups and ability levels as I remember. We had racing bibs which made it feel very official.

I particularly remember the hot chocolate that our mothers provided! There was an award assembly at the end where we won ribbons for our participation. The Carnivals I remember most took place on Fullington Hill, right across Route 10 from what is now Dartmouth’s Organic Farm in Hanover.

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(Stay tuned for more skiing posts later).