may 41. The Hand Sleighs

As the family grew, the financial needs increased. The family’s main source of income came from the dairy cattle, but Alphy had: figured another way to make extra cash. He had built some hand

sleighs for the children for Christmas gifts, and decided that he

would build more to sell. Alphy had built the sleighs with spruce and birch*, and had made metal runners on them. He had also

painted them. The base he painted a cranberry red, and the top a,

holiday green. He also painted two pin stripes in white going dowr: the length of the sleighs.

Alphy had no problem selling the sleighs at the local stores, ll': late fall before the Christmas season. He figured if he could build"

more sleighs over the next year, he would be able to sell them nex Christmas season. During the winter of 1947, Alphy had built oven one hundred sleighs. He made plans to take the bulk of them to

New Brunswick to sell in the fall of the year.

Alphy had bought an old Ford ton truck, and he figured ht: could easily make the trip with it. In the month of November, Alphy

loaded up the truck with the sleighs in preparation for the trip to the :

New Brunswick markets. LeRoy was eleven years old at the time,

and old enough to help, so he too went with Alphy for the trip.

The truck made the journey with no problem. Alphy didn’t completely trust the brakes on the truck, going down the New Brunswick hills, so he ‘geared down’ as much as possible.

Alphy told LeRoy that first they would sell the sleighs, and then stop at a restaurant to eat. He added, “We’ll be like big shots for today.” LeRoy was excited about the trip, but the restaurant would really be the ‘highlight’, as he had never eaten in one before.

* The wooden part of the runners 0f the sleighs was made with birch, and the seat of the sleighs was made with spruce.

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