Sleigh to School | Drawing | Wisconsin Historical Society

Drawing

Sleigh to School

Sleigh to School | Drawing | Wisconsin Historical Society
Four children ride in the box of a horse-drawn sled along with four milk cans. The driver holds the reins of the two horses. One child is perched on a can. Snow covers the ground and the hills in the background, and there is a tree on the left.<p>The following is a recollection from the creator: "Sleigh to School. Winter furnished us with the greatest adventures of travel to and from school. There were days of walking in knee-deep snow, and arduous journeys through the stark, silent woods. The highlight of travel was to ride on the bobsleigh. A snowfall of two or three feet meant that the milkman would not be able to make it down the road to the farm. Our father would have to get the cans of milk up to the main road, a distance of over a mile. He would hitch the two white workhorses to the long bobsleigh and would load in the milk cans. Ralph and I would pile in; our father, dressed in his wool-lined coat, would take the reins, and with the breath steaming from the nostrils of the horses, we would make our way to the main road. We often had to stop to shovel our way through the deep drifts. On other days, if the snowplow had already cleared the road, we would glide over the packed snow with great style in the one-horse sleigh, bells ringing all the way to school.<p>Arriving at school, we placed our winter coats and boots in the front vestibule, put our lunch pails on the shelf, and sometimes, before sitting down to work, made a treat for our winter lunch, snow mousse. Into a metal container we poured a mixture of sugar, chocolate syrup, eggs and cream, and then bury the container outside in the snow. At noon the mousse would be ready for dessert."
DESCRIPTION
Four children ride in the box of a horse-drawn sled along with four milk cans. The driver holds the reins of the two horses. One child is perched on a can. Snow covers the ground and the hills in the background, and there is a tree on the left.

The following is a recollection from the creator: "Sleigh to School. Winter furnished us with the greatest adventures of travel to and from school. There were days of walking in knee-deep snow, and arduous journeys through the stark, silent woods. The highlight of travel was to ride on the bobsleigh. A snowfall of two or three feet meant that the milkman would not be able to make it down the road to the farm. Our father would have to get the cans of milk up to the main road, a distance of over a mile. He would hitch the two white workhorses to the long bobsleigh and would load in the milk cans. Ralph and I would pile in; our father, dressed in his wool-lined coat, would take the reins, and with the breath steaming from the nostrils of the horses, we would make our way to the main road. We often had to stop to shovel our way through the deep drifts. On other days, if the snowplow had already cleared the road, we would glide over the packed snow with great style in the one-horse sleigh, bells ringing all the way to school.

Arriving at school, we placed our winter coats and boots in the front vestibule, put our lunch pails on the shelf, and sometimes, before sitting down to work, made a treat for our winter lunch, snow mousse. Into a metal container we poured a mixture of sugar, chocolate syrup, eggs and cream, and then bury the container outside in the snow. At noon the mousse would be ready for dessert."

RECORD DETAILS
Image ID:101546
Creation Date:circa 1945
Creator Name:Quinney, Richard
City:Delavan
County:Walworth
State:Wisconsin
Collection Name:Richard Quinney papers, 1921-2018
Genre:Drawing
Original Format Type:digital file
Original Format Number:1201000567
Original Dimensions:4044 X 3223 pixels
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Loaned for scanning by Richard Quinney. These drawings are from a sketchbook created by Richard Quinney (circa 1980) at a time when he was "missing the farm" of his boyhood (circa the 1940s).

Most of the text is from Richard Quinney, “A Place Called Home,” Tales From the Middle Border. Madison, WI: Borderland Books, 2007, pp. 1-38 (Originally published in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 67 (Spring 1984), pp. 163-184.

SUBJECTS
Horses
Coats
Hats
Barrels
Milk
Land use, Rural
Children and adults
Men
Delivery of goods
Horse-drawn vehicles
Sleds
Snow

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Reference Details
Location:Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, 4th Floor, Madison, Wisconsin

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