toboggan
Catalog Number
2001.81.2Description
97" x 18" x 9.75" flat-bottomed, wooden toboggan made of 7 varnished boards that curve upward at one end. The outside and center of the boards are painted black. Steering rope attached at front.History
On 1-25-2024 Denise Hoeksema interviewed her father. This is what he had to say about the toboggan."My Dad, Paul Hoeksema, remembers sledding with the toboggan from the late 1930's to early 1940's when he was 8-10 years old. His Dad, Ted Hoeksema, would tie the toboggan to the roof of their 1933 Pontiac by threading rope through the open window on one side of the car, out the open window on the other side of the car, then up and over the sled, as well as somehow securing the front of the toboggan to the front of the car.
He would then drive my Dad, and my Dad's sister Mary, from their house on 32nd street to the hill at Holland Country Club where all 3 of them would spend the night sledding.
My Dad recalls that their toboggan would take them much further down the hill than any of the other sleds - all the way to the creek at the bottom of the hill! Despite the total lack of steering, he says they managed to never hit anyone and never ended up in the creek.
He said that people would ask his Dad Ted if he put something on the bottom of the toboggan. As far as my Dad recalls, his Dad never admitted to such a thing and kept it a secret but my Dad says he did wax the bottom with what he thinks was car wax. I can see my grandfather Ted doing something like that and can almost hear him chuckling about that as I write this.
He always thought his Dad got the toboggan from Vogelzangs, but as an adult he doesn't feel like that would be something Vogelzang would have sold? He does remember a sports shop in town as well so maybe that is where it came from.
He once remembers using the toboggan. This time they had taken some neighborhood friends with them to the hill, Bob Arendsen (sp?) and brothers. Somehow, they ended up going down the edge of the hill where it was not very smooth, hitting a large bump, going airborne, and smacking back down to the ground so hard that the wind was knocked out of my Dad. Not a pleasant experience!
They would have to remove the cushions to dry them out after sledding because they would get soaked by the end of the night."- Denise Hoeksema