Not much is better in this world than an old fashioned slip and slide.
Here’s the best thing about slip and slides too – you don’t need the super expensive, water jets shooting everywhere, arches and rainbows and unicorns ones. Heck, just get some plastic Visqueen, throw on some Dawn soap and water, and you’ve got yourself a good time.
As an adult, I have partaken in the slip and slide experience probably more than what is appropriate for an adult – but age is just a number, and I am 100 percent a kid at heart.
My first “big girl” job after college was at the Ruston Daily Leader, and what made working there so great was that my best friends worked there too. So one weekend, Christina decided to have a slip and slide party at her house, and we had such an amazing. Absolutely not safe, as we were all doing tricks and trying to go as fast as we could (all of us adults by age, mind you), and while we were bruised, a little bloody, and tired, it was just as fun as we remembered as kids.
My other highly memorable adult slip and slide experience was at my friend Angie’s house. Now Angie has this amazing hill that just BEGS for a slip and slide or sledding. Not that we have much snow here in Ruston, but we do have plenty of opportunities for slip and slides. She had a mini pool set up, too, where, if you weren’t racing down the hill at breakneck speeds, you could cool off under the shade of her front yard tree and enjoy watching everyone else.
Now, with kids, we set up what I like to call “Redneck Water Park” each May. It officially opens up summer in the Roberts’ household. When they were young, it used to just be putting the sprinklers on in the front yard and watching the kids run through it until they were exhausted. Now, we usually have a water slide (ahem, usually purchased in the painting aisle of our local Walmart or Lowe’s) perfectly positioned underneath our playground slide. We douse the actual slide and the water slide with soap and water, and by the end of the day, my kids are covered in grass, dirt, and lots and lots of bubbles.
It is, by far, one of my favorite days of the year.
And now, with spring here and the temperature rising, here I am thinking about water slides, homemade water parks – and, most importantly, the memories created along the way.
