After more than a half century, St. Paul woman recovers her brother's long-lost sled

St. Paul, its residents like to say, is a big small town. It's got a long memory too. Ask Connie Maertz Kasella, who grew up there.

Just after Christmas, only months after returning to St. Paul from Oregon, Maertz Kasella received numerous messages on her phone and social media from grade-school friends. Somebody had posted on the Old St. Paul, Minnesota, page on Facebook about an old sled with Tom Maertz's name on it. Wasn't he Connie's brother? they asked.

He sure is, Maertz Kasella said. Turns out, an elderly couple who lived not far from the former Maertz home in Merriam Park had had a fire in their basement recreation room. Hanging on the wall was a Radio Flyer-type sled emblazoned in youngish writing with the name, address and phone number of Tom Maertz.

"He wrote all over it," she said of her baby brother.

Bob Milne, who'd posted the news and photos of the newly discovered sled, said his parents don't remember how the sled came to be in their basement. It had been there for at least 30 years, he said.

Make that 50-plus years, Maertz Kasella said. Her brother Tom, now 57, had probably left it on the snowy hills at the Town and Country Club when he was 4 or 5, she said.

As kids, they used to trek from their home at Dayton and Cretin avenues, climb the golf course's tall fence and sled until the cold, or hunger, chased them home.

Maertz Kasella contacted Milne. A meeting was arranged. Photos were taken of Connie, the sled and Bob's parents, Bill and Beverly Milne. The sled and its first family were finally reunited.

There was just one snag in the otherwise heartwarming story. Tom Maertz, now of Roseville, has no recollection of the sled.

"I really don't remember it," Maertz said. "When I saw the picture, saw the writing, I must have [lost it]. But my life has been broken up into different segments since then."

Tom remembers going sledding at Town and Country, remembers his mom making the kids put plastic newspaper bags on their feet before slipping on their snowmobile boots "to keep them dry," he said.

But the sled? "Sorry," he said.

Bob Milne, who helped move his parents into assisted living after the rec room fire, said the sled's tale has garnered nearly 700 "likes" and "loves" on Facebook. Nearly 100 people have posted messages of joy at the reunion.

He chuckled.