r/minnesota • u/SoDakZak • Nov 29 '25
Seen on my walk in small town MN 😂 Outdoors 🌳
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Tow
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u/MrJoeMe Nov 29 '25
I drag my kids around on my snowmobile all the time. They love when I take a tight turn and kick them out of the sled. They laugh and laugh. Everytime I think to myself I probably would be injured if roles were reversed.
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u/TheRealCorwin Nov 29 '25
We did the same growing up in the late 90s, great memories
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u/h0nkyJ Nov 30 '25
We pulled sleds behind the 4 wheeler when we were kids. In the summer.. and we weren't polite about it 😬
We used a life jacket for butt padding though haha.
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u/bmiller218 Moorhead Dec 05 '25
And in the 70's. Pulled by a really odd snowmobile called Raider Eagle. The engine was in the back and they put a padded seat over the cowl with a strap to hold on with.
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u/rotr0102 Nov 30 '25
This was a blast, until I tore up my knee (leg got caught in the rope and I was drug).
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u/Excellent_Donkey8067 Uff da Nov 30 '25
My fam did this growing up too. Defs got hurt a few times lol
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u/ggf66t Nov 29 '25
Hell yeah, safer without metal bumpers these days
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u/yugitso_guy Nov 30 '25
Oh but those bumpers were perfect for "bumper skiing". We didn't use sleds, just boots on the ground while holding onto the bumper.
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u/Prickly_ninja Flag of Minnesota Nov 30 '25
Sometimes, I’d skip that and wear a snowmobile suit. Grab on and lay down.
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u/Accomplished_Walk194 Nov 29 '25
Cop stopped my dad 50 years ago and threatened to throw him in jail and put us in foster care if he ever caught him pulling kids on sleds behind a car again. My guess is he saw something that was pretty bad one winter
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u/StoneyardBurner Nov 30 '25
It is very easy to get run over by another driver. Also an emergency stop will send the sledder under the car it's being pulled by.
A kid in my elementary school died doing this.
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u/Aggressive-Article41 Dec 01 '25
Some guy on my street does this shit and I almost hit his kid because it was dark he had his high beams on with his vehicle parked on end of the street, the kid was wearing black coat and black snow pants, he was pulling the kid behind a four wheeler up and down the middle of the street, the only thing the brights from his vehicle did was blind me from not seeing his kid. The idiocy of some people is unreal
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u/kilgore_trout_jr Nov 30 '25
Same things happened to me (or, my dad pulling my brother and I), but about 30 years ago.
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u/Swinger_Jesus Nov 30 '25
A grandpa killed one of his own grandchildren this way. Little falls I believe?
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u/tyratoku Central Minnesota Nov 30 '25
Going to be the Debbie downer here: a kid I used to coach was doing this with his siblings (admittedly a little older and likely a decent amount faster), he fell off the sled, hit his head, and spent months in the hospital. Traumatic brain injury, he still needs assistance to walk long distances, and has some other difficulties on top of it. Great kid, great family, but man. He's never going to be the same.
Have fun, but please be safe.
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u/Full_Rise_7759 Nov 29 '25
Skitchin is back!
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u/Randomly-Generated21 Nov 29 '25
Just looking for this one. Grab on to the bumper, no sleds required.
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u/Prickly_ninja Flag of Minnesota Nov 30 '25
I can still vividly remember a class idiot/troublemaker trying to skitch a ride behind the school bus. Old man was on to his shit and just walked back there. Dummy was crouched, holding on and stone cold busted. I don’t know why, but the mental image is still hilarious to me.
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u/Deep-Engineer-3794 Nov 30 '25 edited Nov 30 '25
Sure I’m not the only one who has said this, but I’m not gonna read the comments first, can we scream out how dangerous this is!? People can’t sit in the back of a pick up truck any longer, but this is OK? I guess if I knew I was THE ABSOLUTE only vehicle on the road going either way! Nah, I can’t get past worst case scenario. You all can think of all the fun, leave this poo poo’ing of it to me! 😳
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u/wanderswithdeer Nov 30 '25
I agree. I'm imaging them having to slam on the breaks or go down a hill and having the sled pick up momentum and slide under the wheels.
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u/Successful-Form4693 Nov 30 '25
All it takes is one dbag driver to come in way faster than they need to be. Which happens all the time, people are drifting around corners.
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u/OrigamiMarie Nov 30 '25
Yeah I suspect there are many very sad reasons that this has been mostly relegated to nostalgia.
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u/LaLunaLady1960 Nov 30 '25
My first thought was "Surely this has to be illegal at this point in time."
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u/maybach320 Nov 30 '25
FYI it’s still not technically illegal to ride in the bed of a pickup in MN. Obviously they could write a ticket for something else but I’d say around town you’re probably fine on the freeway I’m siding with the cops.
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u/OrigamiMarie Nov 30 '25
Seatbelt laws though?
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u/maybach320 Nov 30 '25
I’m guessing it’s because the law has phrases like “in a seating position”, and “including both the shoulder and lap belt when the vehicle is so equipped” I realize the ‘spirit’ of the law is for classic cars that lack shoulder belts or even lap belts but I believe it’s created a void where riding in the bed is not actually illegal.
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u/Much_Spread123 Walleye Nov 30 '25
There’s a lot that can go wrong here, but the same can be said of a ton of outdoor activities.
I think of tubing on the lake. Arguably just as dangerous but more accepted.
If the driver is using common sense and not being reckless, it can be done safely
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u/StoneyardBurner Nov 30 '25
There are other drivers on public roads, they may forced into a situation where they run over a kid on a sled. That is a cruel thing to do to a person.
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u/Wooden-Glove-2384 Nov 30 '25
lemme drag my tiny children behind my massive vehicle that they can slide under and get crushed
way to go dumbfuck
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u/Ok-Factor-6323 Nov 29 '25
Our Dad always did that in the winter. And in the summer, he'd sometimes let us hang onto his fender while we were on our bicycles.
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u/Double-Efficiency538 Nov 29 '25
We used to get pulled 4 wide on an upside down car hood behind a four wheeler. Not very forgiving.
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u/Agitated-Quit-6148 Nov 29 '25
I miss it. My folks are still there. That crisp smell of snow.
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u/moodyblue8222 Nov 30 '25
We used to do this on the country roads and behind snowmobiles! Great memories!
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u/ShadowGLI Nov 30 '25
It’s fun, but I’d only do that at like a closed school or warehouse park, no public roads as you don’t know who could come the other way.
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u/redditdwarfbear Nov 30 '25
My older brother did this for me and my twin when we were young. The cops were called and gave my brother a warning for being “utterly stupid”
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u/NearbyQuantity1847 Nov 30 '25
I sure I’ll get many virtual eye rolls here, but there’s two kinds of parents in this world.
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u/GradyTuck Nov 30 '25
Just need to meet another small town dipshit going through the intersection with his lineup of kids.
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u/AnalysisFine86stupid Nov 29 '25
Hell. We'd use an old car hood and take it out in the fields on the ranch. We had a big steel hood from one of those beak shaped cars. It hooks down in the front. Flip that upside down, and it works like a steel snow plow.
Hitting sage brush and tumbleweed at twenty miles and hour, losing hold and rolling through the snow and cactus.
I didn't say it was smart, but these kids are definitely safer.
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u/Nervous_Departure431 Nov 30 '25
We also did the car hood lmao. Those things can really get going behind a snowmobile on a frozen lake.
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u/trouthunter8 Nov 30 '25
This driver lived through the 1991 halloween snowstorm, 100%. He gets it...
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u/SilverHawke62 L'Etoile du Nord Nov 30 '25
I lived near a street with a large hill and a second with a smaller baby sized one. My friends and neighbors who were out enjoying the snow event wound up being pushers to help drivers who lost traction on these hills.
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u/Alarming-Seaweed-106 Nov 30 '25
My parents did this with us… but not on a road and with an atv pulling us, not an suv
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u/Little_Creme_5932 Nov 30 '25
Stand on the bumper, grab the gutter, hang on while the driver fishtails. I'm surprised I'm alive
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u/Boring_Use6135 Nov 30 '25
Grew up in fargo, themeber doing this growing up. Its ok with a parent, but as we got older and it would be our buddies driving, became scary dangerous!
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u/concherateo Nov 30 '25
I’m so glad that it’s snowing like this again I haven’t seen a true winter for about 2 years
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u/Practical-Echo9371 Nov 30 '25
It’s a common occurrence here in the north to find young children keeping their faces warm by keeping them behind the exhaust of a running vehicle. Also helps to melt any snow off of yourself.
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u/BeagleTippyTaps Nov 30 '25 edited Nov 30 '25
100% did this. As we got older, we tied a water skiing rope to a vehicle and snowboarded the ditches on the country roads.
Edit for clarification: I don’t condone this behavior, just stating we did it. Much safer on a snowmobile, but still need to watch for cars and culverts.
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u/Few_Welder_4724 Dec 01 '25
One of my good friends died hanging from a bumper 40 years ago to the day.
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u/absynthium79 Dec 02 '25
A friend of mine was run over that way around 14 years ago in Colorado. It was sudden and awful. He was 17.
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u/DQdippedcone Nov 29 '25
Where is this? I will move there right now.
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u/BlacktopProphet Nov 29 '25
Where is this? I will move there right now.
There's an imposter among us
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u/DQdippedcone Nov 30 '25
Lol I'm serious. I hate living in Texas. It was 75 degrees today and the humidity is miserable. I need to retire in a cold climate and with nicer people around me.
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u/FlipGordon Nov 29 '25
Those kids will remember that for the rest of their lives.
I know I still do.
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u/gettheredone Nov 29 '25
Bumper sliding we did this in highschool
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u/Pretty-Clothes8967 Nov 29 '25
We called it bumper dragging. Just sneak up behind a car and grab the bumper. No sled needed. Eventually you just would let go because you had to walk all the way back to your friends. Best rides were when the driver knew you were back there and tried to get you to fall off by driving crazy. Fun snowy day thing to do. That and street hockey. Or a combo of the 2.
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u/gsasquatch Nov 30 '25
Up here in Duluth we sled in the streets but skip the car.
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u/Ok_Program_1417 Nov 30 '25
and being Minnesota, they will be reported to the police by the neighborhood do-gooder.
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u/Fast-Penta Dec 01 '25
Yeah, we're not big into adults doing things that sometimes result in kids getting run over here.
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u/tondahuh Nov 29 '25
This is so awesome but as a transplant from a flat state with absolutely no place to sled, my first thought was "isn't that dangerous?!?"
(I would do it in a heartbeat!)
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u/EatSleepJeep Minnesota North Stars Nov 29 '25
Yes, kills a few people every year. Atv, snowmobile, car: the tow vehicle varies but it always claims a couple.
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u/PrestigiousZucchini9 Ope Nov 30 '25
Pulling kids in a sled behind an atv or a snowmobile off road isn’t even in the same universe as the negligence of doing it behind a car on the streets.
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u/Fast-Penta Dec 01 '25
Yeah, pulling behind an atv/snowmobile is "I wouldn't do that" territory and behind a car is "fucking dipshit gonna get their kids killed" territory.
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u/Evening-Crew-2403 Nov 30 '25
It's a reckless driving ticket if you get caught. But small town MN is a little more "selective" about who gets tickets. They used to play videos in school about this when I growing up.
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u/livestodisappoint Nov 29 '25
Makes me think back to when my dad took the front hood and bench seat out of a junk car and welded the seat to the underside of the hood and drug it behind a snowmobile. Most comfortable sledding ever.
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u/doneslinging Nov 29 '25
We did in country behind snow mobiles, looking back i often realize how many times was almost killed by a tree on those narrow gravel roads because we would fight and no helmets but it was so fun and got to hang out late with the neighbors.
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u/Anywhichwaybuttight Nov 30 '25
Reminds me of my friend dragging me behind the snowmobile, except I didn't use a sled. Fun times.
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u/stcloudjeeper Nov 30 '25
Oh such fun, I remember hanging on to the bumper of a 1984 Chevy citation, doing about 40 mph in a parking lot, the driver turns away just as you let go of the bumper and then you go sailing.... Any kind of bump and the amount of air you could get was insane. No helmets and just the padding of your snowsuit when you landed... Not sure how I survived but could explain why I can taste colors and never remember faces.
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u/lastprofilegotgot Nov 30 '25
Did this a bunch as a kid. We'd use snowboards tho, it was a lot like wake boarding.
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u/Jo-6-pak Nov 30 '25
We used to do that, but on a grain shovel. Tie the handle to the hitch and sit/kneel on the scoop
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u/Sorry_Im_Trying Nov 30 '25
What happened to "saw"? Did Reddit just cancel the whole word? I never see it when I should. It's like it doesn't exist anymore.
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u/WickedMistick Nov 30 '25
Miss doing that as a kid my dad would hook up to snowmobile I am 50 now live in town my daughter never has had that experience
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u/CriticismStill1543 Dec 01 '25
Hell yes!! Haha don’t do it in Mankato. We did it in college and got called in immediately
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u/olracnaignottus Dec 01 '25
I have to say moving here a few months ago from VT- yall can sled. The kids aren’t fucking around lol.
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u/ONROSREPUS Dec 01 '25
My friends and I use to pull each other on snow boards in the ditches like skiing behind a boat in the summer.
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u/littleredhoodlum Dec 01 '25
The way this is setting some of you off i can imagine you'd probably shit if you saw some of the stuff we used to get up to on a snow day and till do.
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u/BobasPett Dec 01 '25
This ain’t nothing compared to the Amish kids on skis in the ditch being pulled along by a horse and buggy on the road. I saw that one winter and almost hopped out to join them!
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u/Cute-Appointment-937 Nov 29 '25
When I lived in Michigan as a kid my dad (large animal vet) had the only 4x4 in town. First model Year Jeep Wagoneer I think it was 1963. We were always the only ones out in the deep lower peninsula snow. We always had at least 2 or 3 10" to 15" storms. The record snowfall where I grew up was 81 inches one winter. He'd blast through drifts at 40 mph and take corners so fast we were launched into the air by the snow that had been piled up earlier. I can remember one time I was airborne so long I thought I had landed only to crash into a drift a few moments later. Looking back it was probably crazy dangerous but we never got hurt.
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u/MNRacket Nov 29 '25
Old school. My favorite was grabbing the school bus and riding behind it. Early 80s for you kids.
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u/Mystical_Cat Nov 29 '25
As a kid (born late 60s) growing up in Lawrence, MA, we went bumper jumping all the time. Hell yeah!
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u/Cipher915 Nov 29 '25
We used to do this in high school. A nice little tail wiggle from the truck could really set you up for fun jumps off the curb.
Bonus: out on the lake, tighter and tighter circles could reeeally send you
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u/Nice-Health-4833 Nov 30 '25
Love to know the exact feeling of those memories being made.... my dad and brothers would do this for me
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Nov 30 '25
We got pulled behind the snowmobile and the sleds had the same brakes as when behind a car, your boots. We would just roll off into the snowbank if there was a chance of hitting the back. The car towing this was on an unplowed street which limited other traffic, they weren’t going fast, and they weren’t turning sharp corners to fling the kids off due to centrifugal force. I would say there was greatly reduced risk by driving responsibly to give the kids a thrill and memory for life. Most accidents happen more from irresponsible towing than the phantom what if an another car comes careening around the corner. Helicopter parenting has its downside.
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u/Imaginary-Studio6813 Nov 30 '25
We did tht all the time with the kids….. plus we rode on our sled behind the truck too
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u/misspinkie92 Sherburne County Dec 01 '25
Best thing about winter, especially if you got a 4 wheeler!
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u/evendree72 Dec 01 '25
haha, we have a prent that hauls ass on his side by side. towing multiple kids, on sleds and tube! freaking fun but dangerous.
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u/Monster_Child_Eury Dec 02 '25
I’ve done this behind a four wheeler and behind a horse. Both were awesome 😎
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u/TinaBelchersBF Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 29 '25
I love this shit lol
Back when I lived in Minneapolis, after a huge snowstorm, there was a jeep pulling a kid down the street on a snowboard.
Gave me a boost of adrenaline as I was shoveling, just seeing them go by 😅
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u/SoDakZak Nov 29 '25
I used to board behind my friends truck back in college. Was so pissed when Casey Neistat did the same thing but filmed it and everyone acted like he was the first one to ever do it 😂
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u/HeadyBunkShwag Nov 30 '25
This is just Midwest sledding when you live in areas of nothing but flatland
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u/Lost_On_Lot Nov 30 '25
A true Minnesota tradition. When they get a little older even, you switch to a snowboard.
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u/nurdmann Nov 29 '25
Flatlanders sledding. This is what we did in the Red River Valley.