Sunday, August 31, 2008

West Piney Girls Camp

Anyone who has been to this lodge knows it is famous for it's giant silver slide. As a kid I had no fear of sliding on it, but as an adult I see it with different eyes. I also get to hear all the stories that go with the slide. When we were kids, the teen age boys would put a hose on it and ride it with wax paper- Cuh-RAZY! My brother did that and threw out his back. He had to lay on his bed the rest of the reunion cuz he couldn't move. I saw a little girl ride it safely down until she got to the bottom where she turnded on her belly and hit here head on the slide. She cut her forehead and started bleeding. You know how head wounds are. Last reunion an adult cousin slit the side of his hand on the side of the slide. He was an oral surgeon so he had to go and get it stitched up right away. When we tell and retell the stories you hear all the grandma's going on about how it needs to be taken down and how it's so dangerous. But if you did there would go the lodge's legacy. So amazingly enough the slide is still there. And they're making improvements. They made the slide longer so you don't fly off the end as often. A youth group helped build an actual stairway. The started doing something else to it when we left this year. Here is a clip of me going down it. Notice how someone in the background happens to whistle at just the right time as I say, "Holy!" Don't worry I didn't say anything else after that, but you can hear the whistle. I kind of lose control at the end, but it's scary :). Let it benoted that I did ride it. At the last reunion, Remi rode it with no carpet. His rubber soles hit the slide at the bottom and he fell forward and hit his face on the slide. He was sobbing when he said, "I don't ever want to do that again(sob) (I was thinking YES!) without a carpet." So he climbed back up and slid down again with a carpet. He was only 4! Oh, I also remember my grandpa going down the slide. I couldn't believe my eyes. And I think it was before the extended the slide because at the end he totally cartwheeled and somersaulted- I wish I had recorded that! I'm pretty bad at taking video so please have patience with these. This last day everyone kept flying off the end so I kept recording.

3 comments:

Robin said...

This was fun to watch. I need to find a way to get you video of Remi jumping off the bridge.

crazyitln said...

Hahahahaha! Yeah what is wrong with our family, we love the slide and the pain that goes with it. Suck it up boys and girls!!! Then we have the ones that video all the pain so we can watch it for years to come(I'm talking about you Kat and of course my lovely husband)we have the video of Dennis getting his finger just about ripped off from the slide. Oh tell me more painful stories. It makes me miss the slide so much.

Unknown said...

It is now 2016. I was at the camp for a family reunion. I went down the without thinking I would fly off the end which I did. In the process I compressed a vertebrae in my back. I just received my $14,000 medical bill today. The damn slide should be lengthened or shut down. If I could sue I would but a lawyer told me it wouldn't be winnable because of the waiver that has to be signed by the person that rents the lodge for your group.