‘The closest thing we had to the Olympics'

Former area resident recalls when Norsemen Hill attracted world-class ski jumpers Editor’s note: The Winter Olympics begin today in Vancouver, British Columbia, and one of the first events to be contested will be the ski jump. More than 70 years ago, world-class ski jumpers would make their way to Norsemen Hill in Salisbury Mills to compete for championships. What follows is a recollection of a woman who was there.By Beth Quinn SALISBURY MILLS — It might be hard to imagine now, but Salisbury Mills was once a place where world-class ski jumpers competed in hopes of making it to the Olympics. “It seems like it must have been a hundred years ago,” recalls Fedela diBenedetto Decker, who grew up in Washingtonville during the Great Depression. In fact, it was more like 75 years ago, during the 1930s, that Fedela and her brother Joe and several other Washingtonville teenagers spent winter weekends skiing cross country the five miles or so to Salisbury Mills to watch those skiers compete on Norsemen Hill. In her own words, Fedela - who is now 91 years old and a resident of Largo, Fla. - recalls what it was like: “The hill wasn’t too far from the old train trestle down in Salisbury. You’d probably have a hard time seeing it now because it’s all overgrown, but in those days, it was the biggest natural jump in the state. “The men who jumped there were called the Norsemen Ski Club, and they’d come from all over the world to compete. Spectators came up on the train from New York City, and there’d be quite a crowd. “We had no money to get in, but my brother Joe and I and the other kids would ski down to Salisbury Mills from Washingtonville and we’d get in for free because they’d use us to pat the snow smooth after each jump. “What they did was run a rope from the seating scaffold, then between jumps a few of us would hold onto the rope and ski out onto the hill and use our own skis to pack the snow down where it had been kicked up by the last jumper. They gave us free hot dogs for doing it, too. “I saw a skier jump 191 feet there, and I saw a famous Norseman named Torger Tokle jump there, too, although I’m not sure of his name now. I also saw a skier fall and break his neck and die. They took him to the hospital in Goshen, but there wasn’t anything they could do for him. “I never had my own skis - I always borrowed them - but when my brotherJoe went off to the service, he left his skis behind for me to use. They were seven feet long, can you imagine?” Fedela is barely five feet tall herself, but she did some jumping of her own on those long wooden boards. There was a smaller hill not far from Norsemen Hill where the local kids could work on perfecting their own skills. They’d take turns jumping, and then they’d climb the hill sideways with their skis on and do it all over again. When they were done, they’d ski back home to Washingtonville. “I tell you, it was a lot of fun,” said Fedela. “And it was the closest thing we had to the Olympics. There was no television then to watch the Olympics, but this was in our own back yard.”

On the Web
Read more about Torger Tokle at www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,789987,00.html#ixzz0eOZ3oF98