"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. " -Helen Keller

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

A Trip in the Wayback Machine...Slip 'n Slide Summer

Today was HOT. It was a day for popsicles and running through sprinklers. It was a day for sitting in the shade and going down Slip 'n Slides. It was a day for summer fun. We had many great yards for Slip 'n Slides when I was growing up. In Hawaii, we had a nice gentle slope that let you slide with almost no effort. When we moved to North Carolina, we had a broad, almost perfectly flat front yard that let you take running, flying leaps to take off down the Slip 'n Slide. But, somehow, that wasn't enough for my sister and me.

My sisters and I were always very creative. And, on this one occasion, my parents had gone out for the evening and left us with our favorite baby sitter. This was the baby sitter who had taught us how to slide down the driveway on my baby sister's old crib mattress. Can you guess why we adored her? But, this night, she was innocent of the chaos that ensued. Our beloved babysitter put my sister Keri and I in the bath tub and then went to put our baby sister, Becky, to bed. Well, like most little girls, we liked to play in the bath and, since it was still early in the evening, she let us stay in there and play for a while. Our bathroom in our house in Hawaii was long and narrow. The bathtub and closet were on one side and the vanity and toilet were on the other. In my childhood memories, it was a super long bathroom. In reality, it probably wasn't much longer than the bathroom we have in our house now. In our children's point of view, that bathroom floor stretched on forever and ever and looked like a perfect place to slide. Keri and I splashed water out of the tub and all over the floor and then slid up and down that floor. The water got deeper, the shrieks of fun got louder, and all was good in our world until our babysitter opened the door. In our enthusiasm for our indoor slip 'n slide, we forgot one little detail...that damned crack under the bathroom door. Every time we slipped and sloshed on that floor, we slipped and sloshed water under the door where the carpet conveniently wicked the water away. Well, as the carpet wicked the water away, we just splashed more water out of the tub and onto our indoor slip 'n slide. By the time our baby sitter got Becky into bed and came back to check on me and Keri, we had so much water on the floor and in the carpet that it took every single towel in the house to dry the floor...and, we lived in Hawaii so we had  TON of beach towels in the house. It goes without saying that my parents were not pleased with us. Luckily, the amusement factor outweighed the frustration/anger and, as long as we promised not to repeat our stunt, we didn't get in to too much trouble. Hehehe, we didn't repeat that stunt but we did plenty of other things. Our imaginations and sneakiness knew no bounds.

5 comments:

Natalie said...

My cousin and I used to have splash fights in the bathtub. My Granny allowed it - provided we remembered to completely close the shower curtain before the splashing began.

Your story made me smile and brought back that feeling of innocence and smallness. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

awesome story! I miss the slip & slide. :-)

Meari said...

haha... funny story.

Living in the country on a rental farm, we made our own slip n slide with a piece of plastic thrown on the grass and held down by rocks. We pulled the hose over and just let it run over the plastic, and away we went!

Quiet Dreams said...

I loved the slip 'n slide! Thanks for the reminder!

battynurse said...

Oh thinking back to the things me and my friends used to get into. And a couple of my cousins. Brings back great memories.