BILL CANTLIN
Age
64
Thornton,
NH
Lebanon
(NH) HS Ski Team, Dartmouth Ski Team, US Ski Team
 |
| Bill Cantlin on the cover of SkiWeek in 1967 |
Back
in the early sixties some of us (then) kids went over to the twenty meter jump in Lebanon, NH at night after a snow storm to
pack the jump so we could use it the next day. It was one of those nights when
you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face and this was way before the
jump was lighted. By the time we got done packing
our flashlights were dead. The hill was perfect and someone suggested we go off the jump. One
guy smoked and offered to light two matches at the takeoff on both sides of the
track. Brilliant idea. Light the matches, “all clear”, kick off, but the matches
burned out before the jumper got to the takeoff. It was scary for that first
jumper sailing into the darkness (I have forgotten who it was ) and we howled
with laughter. We spent more time trying to light the matches at the right time
so they were still burning when the jumper got there. Sometimes it worked out.
Sometimes it didn’t. It was fun and we, apparently, were making a lot of noise
laughing and cheering because we exited the hill under the full lights of a
Lebanon police cruiser.
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