Maggie / January 7, 2005 4:35 PM

In my old neighborhood (sweet, sweet Melrose Park) we would go to Schiller Woods on Cumberland, between Irving and Belmont. Nice, big sledding hill - so nice that I ran into a tree at the foot of the hill when I was 7. I cut my face up pretty good but my tears turned into my father stopping for hot chocolate at McD's.

Michael / January 7, 2005 5:15 PM

I would have to say Cricket Hill, although it's not really in my immediate neighborhood...it's just the closest. In fact, just this week I was wondering if my old Philadelphia Flyer is still in my mother's garage--goddamn that thing was fast!! If it is, I'm going to have to clean her up, wax her blades, and take 'er down that hill. I'm thirty-five now, but F#%@ it!

Steve / January 7, 2005 5:33 PM

Quite possibly my driveway. A few years back (before we lived there), my landlord decided that he simply couldn't rent out his newly purchased building on a corner lot unless it had a garage. Since the backyard on this property had been sold off and built on many years ago, the logical alley-facing option was out.

So it was decided that part of the basement would make a perfect garage, even though the sideyard is only about twelve feet wide and the basement floor a good five or six feet below street level. I don't know my trig too well, but I can tell you that the driveway angle is wicked steep enough that it has proven impossible for most cars (including my compact) to pull into without bottoming out and scraping metal off in a big way.

But with the garage door open, the driveway could very well make a lovely little sledding hill.

d4ve / January 7, 2005 5:54 PM

Like i'd post that publicly. :p
Good luck suckers! :D

paul / January 8, 2005 9:28 AM

The only place in my neighborhood is Mt. Trashmore, on Oakton in Evanston. There might be a slope or two around Northwestern, but they don't fit my my east coast definition of a 'hill'.

I do know of some longer runs way out in Palatine's Deer Run Forest Preserve.

Anybody else have the college memory of using a cafeteria tray 'cause you didn't have a sled? There's still times I can't sit down right.

Ruthie / January 8, 2005 11:32 AM

There's a little sledding hill in Hyde Park at 54th and Greenwood that's perfect for little kids, but it's nowhere near as huge and death-defying as some of the hills I remember from my childhood in Minnesota.

Joe / January 8, 2005 11:46 AM

111th & Longwood or 103rd & Longwood, in Beverly.

Sure, you have to compete with all the cars and trucks careening out of control as they try to make it down (or up) the hill, but that just makes it more interesting. It is particulary amusing to watch cars skidding down the hill, desperatley trying to stop for the red light at the very bottom.

leah / January 9, 2005 10:58 AM

I think the jewel might have a pile of snow in the parking lot, but I can't imagine sledding anywhere around here. Here bring Ravenswood.

I take that back, it might be possible to sled down the embankment of the METRA. 12 feet, nearly vertical, but why not?

I did try cafeteria trays in college and found them to be totally unsatisfying for sledding. The ripped up tv box worked so much better.

Lisa / January 9, 2005 1:06 PM

I'm with Joe. 111th and Longwood is rather hilarious!

Mike / January 10, 2005 8:50 AM

I'm with Ruthie on that one, coming from the place that has a well-attended Winter Carnival, I feel a bit like a skydiver being asked where his favorite place to fall out of a tree is.

That said, Mt. Trashmore is alright.

emily / January 10, 2005 9:02 AM

I don't know about sledding, but Craig and I saw some alley-snowboarding on the way home from the Pontiac Friday night. Suv + rope tied to bumper + 4 high guys + an alley with tons of piled up snow = hours of entertainment.

tony / January 10, 2005 9:26 AM

There are some hills in the park between Stockton and Lake View, over by North Pond, that I have fond memories of sledding down as a kid.

miss ellen / January 10, 2005 10:34 AM

as most of my sledding was done on the southside, i also gotta give it up for the longwood drive hills.

as well as the hills in evergreen country club @ 93rd and california, you just gotta be sneaky & find a way in ;-)

ben wood / December 1, 2006 1:19 PM

used to sled in Barry Park in Oak Park, IL when i was a kid. then they found out there was a toxic dump buried beneath. 7 years and a geodesic dome covering the whole 4 block park, men in spacesuits cleaning it up. now its a park again with no hill! im sure to send my kids there one day ?!