Flexible Flyer Sleds and My Grandad Llewellyn
Our family lived nearby up until I was eleven years old in Elkins Park. He and my Nana, Ella Hall Llewellyn, lived in the same house for over fifty years at 229 E. Moreland Ave in Hatboro, PA. When we were young they owned the vacant property beside them where we enjoyed some momentous family gatherings like their fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration in April of 1965. We were members of the monthly Friends meeting my grandparents helped start, Cheltenham Friends Meeting that met on the grounds of Jeane’s Hospital in Fox Chase. My grandfather was involved in the financial aspects of building their new meetinghouse as well as my father back in the 1950’s.
BusinessWeek cover photo December 17, 1955
After graduating from Westtown Friends School in 1908 his Aunt Sina paid for him to go to Penn State University and study geology. She owned a controlling interest in a gold mine in Colorado and wanted him to manage it. He realized after one year that her investment was pretty worthless and did not want to waste more of her money on his education since he would not have a viable mine to oversee, so he told her the bad news and went to work pretty soon afterward for S.L. Allen & Co.
William T. Llewellyn, president of S.L. Allen & Co. 1954
My grandparents were married at the Arch Street Meetinghouse in downtown Philadelphia in April 1915. Their marriage lasted sixty two years! They had four children, Robert, Walter, Ellen and my mother, Mary Phebe. They all went to Westtown school, too. I’ll tell some of their stories another time. A very interesting family I was born into!
Grandad took us on a tour of the factory and offices once back around 1960. I remember being impressed by his personal acquaintance with everyone in the large factory. It was quite a sight to see all those new sleds on a conveyor belt going through a dip-vat of shellac to varnish the wood.
Sadly, like so many American manufacturing firms, the company was absorbed by some other entity and no longer exists. He retired at the mandatory age of seventy in 1961 as president and director of the company. The new plastic snow discs are sure not the same as the Flexible Flyers!
In the early 1940’s they purchased a second vacation home in the Pocono mountains on a little lake, ‘Indian Lake’. The cottage was constructed of logs and was within walking distance of the lake where we could row a boat, fish and swim in the icy, mountain water that quickly turned our lips blue and made our teeth chatter uncontrollably! We enjoyed picking wild blueberries or huckleberries in the woods and exploring. Chipmunks peaked out at us from their hiding spots. There was an old abandoned shale mine not far away that had a rusty old steam shovel we could play on! What fun! We enjoyed some good family times there over the years. Sitting on his lap and playing with his gold pocket watch in the old photo was a good memory. He always wore a gold pocket watch and usually had a suit and tie on.
Grandad had severe sinus and allergy trouble and was a champion at snoring! For a fairly small man he could rattle the rafters when he snored in his sleep. I remember hearing him in that cottage in the mountains.
He had a funny habit of softly whistling to himself. I never recognized the tunes, but he would just do it pretty regularly with no recognizable pattern that I could detect.
In their Hatboro home they had a wooden toy box by the front door stocked with the remnants of our parents' toys. They were always fun to try out. There was a basement with what had been a coal bin. They had a sun porch they enjoyed sitting on and relaxing. My grandmother Ella had arthritis and used Canadian crutches. He was a very devoted husband to her. One treasure I have is a letter he wrote her from Barnesville, Ohio when his father died in 1920 to his “darling Ella”. They had a very sweet relationship. And he and his brother Charles attended to their father in his last days. They had a loving relationship with him. I also have one of their father Elisha’s letters to them. Grandad told Ella what was going on and his plans to go home via train and back to work. In a loving way it was very informative.
My father deeply respected his father in law. He told us that when my Grandad assumed the presidency of the company in 1953 his salary was $60,000. He was so concerned that this was way more than the workers earned that he cut his salary in half!
He was an ardent lover of cars. He would only drive Buick’s and loved the great big ones, Roadmasters and Electra 225 models I recall. His brother Charles was equally devoted to Ford. They had friendly discussions about them, but never came to an agreement on that subject.
In 1959 they purchased a third home for the winters in Sebring, Florida, at 207 Dove Avenue in Sebring HIlls. During those years he was on the board of directors of Cheltenham Federal Savings and Loan and as president from 1939-1976. He set up savings accounts for us and taught us to save money. We had little account books with dates stamped and the amount of our deposits. He loved to drive the interstate down and back, and made sure to attend the monthly meetings! He loved his big Buicks.
He was a spiritual man and spent time in daily devotions. Most mornings he and my grandmother read ‘Daily Bread’ together. You could see a copy on their breakfast table. He was quiet and I don’t recall him speaking in our Quaker meetings for worship. My Nana would frequently quote or read a Psalm or some Scripture in her quiet, firm voice. Grandad was a faithful servant. He was a devoted family man. They sent all four children through college to get their degrees. Nana was a great letter-writer and very articulate. She loved word games like Scrabble and Anagrams, and was extremely good at them.
I do not recall him ever complaining. He was fairly hard of hearing later in life and wore hearing aids. He was a contented, thankful man. He served as the town Burgess or Mayor for Hatboro back in the 1940’s. Of course they were pacifists so he never served in the military. My Nana was very active in the Christian Temperance Union back in the day. They were tea-totallers. Nana also was interested in health food and took vitamin supplements. She lived to be about 94. She also knitted all of us sweaters, mittens, caps and so forth. Toward the end of her life she made us all afghans, or lap-robes.
My father and mother started me out pretty early on a Flexible Flyer sled (1953 or 54)!
As a little boy we always had very nice Flexible Flyer sleds. We lived on a hill and around the corner when it snowed they would block off a hill we could sled down on Rogers Road. What fun we had! The company tried an off season model with wheels called the Flexy Racer. Some years ago our younger son, Roy, gave me a nice Flexible Flyer sled! It has a chrome bumper and looks just like the one I had as a boy. I have it displayed in my home office on top of my bookcase.
Grandad William T. Llewellyn went to heaven in 1977. He and my Nana, Ella Hall Llewellyn, are buried in the graveyard marked by very plain markers in the Quaker meetinghouse property at Goshen Friends Orthodox burial ground in Chester County, Pennsylvania. After so many years his life still has a lasting impact. Grandad taught me a great deal about how to be a Christian man. He was a humble example to us and I am so thankful to have known him as my grandfather.
