Sheridan's Brooks Street hill is a steep and tempting one for area youngsters.
On January 18, 1925, a light fog cloaked that Saturday afternoon, a fairly
warm one for January with the mercury pushing 40 degrees. As 9-year-old Frank Blum
and his chum boarded their sleds at the crest of Brooks Street Hill, they threw
caution to the wind. As the boys rocketed through the Burkitt Street
intersection, Frank’s buddy slid through, missing Walter Small’s car by a hair.
But Blum wasn’t so lucky.
Just a hair behind, he ran smack dab into the car’s
rear wheel. Blum was rushed to Sheridan County Memorial where he lay in serious
condition for days. The story does have a happy ending…eventually. Young Mr.
Blum spent (at least) the next month at home, recuperating with a fractured
skull and other injuries. Sadly, he wasn’t the first or the last: the article
referenced below begins “Frank Blum…was the first coasting victim of the year.”
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